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Is this Pygmy Kingfisher - Pantanal, Brazil (1 Viewer)

Pantanal1

Wes Syposz
I need help in identifying this Kingfisher PHOTO.
It is much smaller than the Green Kingfisher and the markings are different, but it does not have the rufous colorings of the Pygmy.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Wes
 
Pantanal1 said:
I need help in identifying this Kingfisher PHOTO.
It is much smaller than the Green Kingfisher and the markings are different, but it does not have the rufous colorings of the Pygmy.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Wes

It looks like a female Amazon
 
tf1044x said:
It looks like a female Amazon

Thanks for your comment tf1044x,
It is way smaller than Amazon. I have the photos of Amazon Kingfishers males and females and this one is not Amazon. This Kingfisher is smaller than Green, which is smaller than Amazon.

Cheers,
Wes
 
Pantanal1 said:
Thanks for your comment tf1044x,
It is way smaller than Amazon. I have the photos of Amazon Kingfishers males and females and this one is not Amazon. This Kingfisher is smaller than Green, which is smaller than Amazon.

Cheers,
Wes

Hi,

There are, as far as I am aware, only five different Kingfishers in Brazil. All occur in the pantanal, Green and Rufous has a rufous breast in both male and female, as does Pygmy. Only Amazon and Green shows a white breast. Looking at the book, if Amazon is too large, female Green has a possible double breast band which your photo shows signs of, but if you say that Green is too large also, then I have no idea, sorry.

tf
 
tf1044x said:
Hi,

There are, as far as I am aware, only five different Kingfishers in Brazil. All occur in the pantanal, Green and Rufous has a rufous breast in both male and female, as does Pygmy. Only Amazon and Green shows a white breast. Looking at the book, if Amazon is too large, female Green has a possible double breast band which your photo shows signs of, but if you say that Green is too large also, then I have no idea, sorry.

tf

You are correct tf, there are five species of the Kingfishers in Pantanal, my problem is that the Kingfisher that I cannot recognize doesn't doesn't have rufous breast. This is the photo of Green Kingfisher
There are similarities between these two species, but the one is much smaller than the Green. It also lacks the white spots on the back. I am still looking for an explaination, maybe it is an immature bird?

Thanks.
Cheers,
Wes
 
Maybe this individual was particularly small but the bird imo is a female Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana), a fairly typical one I´d say. Immature American Pygmys don´t look like this bird. They resemble the respective adults but below much paler and duller, wing-coverts speckled with rufous. Males have traces of green breast-band.
Saludos
Eduardo
 
As mentioned by Eduardo: That's a typical female Green Kingfisher, a species most easily mistaken for the Amazon (which has a proportionally larger bill, lack the white markings on the wing, lacks the lower "spotted" breastband, usually has less white in the tail, etc.). The Green clearly is smaller than the Amazon, but it is still significantly larger than the Pygmy. The Pygmy basically looks like a tiny white-bellied version of the Green-and-Rufous. Even the juveniles of these two species resemble each other, except for the obvious difference in size of course. Here's a few American Pygmy's:

http://www.mangoverde.com/birdsound/spec/spec89-93.html

Juv's are similar but a bit duller below and with more distinct spots on the wings.
 
Last edited:
Motmot said:
Maybe this individual was particularly small but the bird imo is a female Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana), a fairly typical one I´d say. Immature American Pygmys don´t look like this bird. They resemble the respective adults but below much paler and duller, wing-coverts speckled with rufous. Males have traces of green breast-band.
Saludos
Eduardo

Thank you Eduardo,
I am still puzzled why these Kingfishers are so much smaller than Green one, about one half the size.
Here is another photo of this small kingfisher. You can get some sort of idea about the size in relation to the fence wire.

http://ecodrama.com/Post/PygmyKingfisher01.jpg

Thanks again.
Cheers,
Wes
 
Looks big enough for Green Kingfisher in the new pic. Pygmys are smaller and like being under cover, in darkish places. These sunny pics also favour Green ;)
 
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