Chocolate-backed Kingfisher - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies badia
Photo by Michael Hooper
Royal Mile, Budongo, Uganda, October 2018

Halcyon badia

Identification

21 cm (8¼ in); a medium-sized kingfisher.

• Chestnut head, mantle and wing coverts
• Azure lower back, tail and wing panel
• Chestnut tip of tail

White underparts

Distribution

Tropical Africa: Sierra Leone to western Uganda, DRC and northern Angola; Bioko.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Halcyon badia has two subspecies:^[1]

• H. b. obscuridorsalis

• west Africa (Sierra Leone to Ghana)

• H. b. badia

• Nigeria, Bioko Island, and southern Cameroon east to southern Central African Republic and extreme western Uganda), south to Gabon and northernmost Angola (Cabinda and the Cuango River)

Habitat

Primary and secondary forests, as well as gallery forest up to 1500 m.

Behaviour

Common, but heard more often than seen.

Diet

Their main diet consists of insects particularly grasshoppers and beetles. As well as crickets, cicadas and mantids.

Vocalisation

A high-pitched note, followed by 10-15 decending whistles (lasting 5-6 seconds); pee, tee tee tee..

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved November 2018)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Chocolate-backed Kingfisher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Chocolate-backed_Kingfisher

External Links

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