Chattering kingfisher

The chattering kingfisher (Todiramphus tutus) is a species of bird in the kingfisher family Alcedinidae. The species is found in the Cook Islands and the Society Islands in French Polynesia. The species is probably closely related to the white-bellied collared kingfishers of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.[2]

Chattering kingfisher
illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans

Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Alcedinidae
Subfamily: Halcyoninae
Genus: Todiramphus
Species:
T. tutus
Binomial name
Todiramphus tutus
(Gmelin, 1788)

Description

It resembles the collared kingfisher but is smaller and lacks any rust colour in the plumage. The breast and throat is white, and the back, wings and crown are blue-green (although the crown of the Atiu subspecies is almost entirely white). It can be told from the Tahiti kingfisher by the complete white collar.

Diet

The chattering kingfisher lives singly or in pairs and feeds on insects and lizards taken on the wing or from the ground. The species nests in tree cavities.

Habitat

Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests and tropical moist montane forest. The species prefers primary forest in montane valleys, but will move into secondary growth and old plantations. The species has an uneven distribution and is rare in some locations; a survey of the island of Tahiti found none between 1986–1991, although it had been reported on the island in the past.[3] Nevertheless, it is not considered threatened with extinction by the IUCN.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2019). "Todiramphus tutus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Pratt, H., Bruner, P & Berrett, D. (1987) The Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific Princeton University Press:Princeton ISBN 0-691-08402-5
  3. Monnet, C. Thibault, J-C. & Varney, A. (1993) "Stability and changes during the twentieth century in the breeding landbirds of Tahiti, (Polynesia)" Bird Conservation International 3 261-280


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