From Opus

Photo by Hans&Judy Beste
Julatten, Queensland, approx 1980

Alternative name: White-tailed Kingfisher

Tanysiptera sylvia

Includes Black-headed Kingfisher

[edit] Identification

34cm

Photo by megan perkins
Kingfisher Lodge , Jullatten, Queensland, Australia, November 2007

• Blue forehead, crown and shoulders
• Blue and black upperparts
• Yellow-apricot underparts
• Black eye band
• White lower rump
• Two long white central tail feathers
• Thick red bill
• Orange legs
  

Juvenile: duller with short tail feathers and a black bill

[edit] Distribution

Australasia: found in New Guinea and Queensland.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Photo by Hans&Judy Beste
Julatten, Far North Queensland, 1988

There are 4 subspecies:

• T. s. leucura:

• Umboi Island (Bismarck Archipelago)

• T. s. nigriceps:

• Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain and Duke of York)

• T. s. salvadoriana:

• South-eastern New Guinea (Hall Sound to Kemp Welch River)

• T. s. sylvia:

• Breeds north-eastern Australia (northern Queensland); winters in New Guinea

Nigriceps is sometimes split as Black-headed (or Black-capped) Paradise-Kingfisher^[2].

[edit] Habitat

Dense tropical rainforests.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

They nest in ground-level termite mounds. The clutch consists of 3-4 white eggs which are incubated by both the adults both also feeding the young who fledge after 25 days.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes frogs, lizards and insects.

[edit] Vocalisation

Call: tcherwill, tcherwill.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. Birdwatching Australia

• List of references

[edit] External Links