Coraciiformes Taxon Advisory Group -
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)
SSP Manager: Not a TAG Recommended Species
General Information
Description
The head and underside are a deep chestnut coloration with a contrasting white throat and chest center. The tail, wings, median tail coverts, and back are blue. The white-throated kingfisher is approximately 27-28cm in total body length and ranges from 75-110 grams in weight.
Status
The white-throated kingfisher is generally considered common throught the majority of its range and may be locally abundant in some regions. The nesting density is found in some areas to be a distance of 100 meters distance between nests. The adaptability of the kingfisher has allowed it to increase its population in some areas during the course of the twentieth century. The birds have begun to make use of palm plantations and commercial agricultural regions not previously included in their preferred habitats.
Range
Habitat
This species has shown a high degree of adaptability and will utilize a variety of habitats. The preferred habitats are canals, swamps, bogs, dams, ponds, creeks, mudflats, and beaches, however they can also be found in countless agricultural areas, including palm plantations, rice fields, and general farmlands. In some areas they have even adapted to living in light industrial zones. With the exception of regions in Myanmar, the white-throated kingfisher entirely avoids the densely forested regions, instead remaining on the forest edges.
Vocalizations
Reproduction
Diet
Wide variety of prey, including insects such as grasshoppers and crickets, earwigs, cockroaches, bugs, beetles, also crabs and crustaceans, earthworms, fish, frog and roads, lizards, snakes, small birds and rodents. Typical sit and wait predator, spends long periods on perch up to 10 m above ground (before diving head first or landing feet first), can hover for a moment over water before snatching prey.
White-throated Kingfisher Gallery
White-throated Kingfisher Bibliography
