Alcedo (genus)

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Alcedo
Two kingfishers (Alcedo atthis)

Two kingfishers ( Alcedo atthis )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Rockers (Coraciiformes)
Family : Kingfishers (Alcedinidae)
Subfamily : Common Kingfishers (Alcedininae)
Genre : Alcedo
Scientific name
Alcedo
Linnaeus , 1758

Alcedo is a genus from the subfamily of the real kingfishers (Alcedininae), whose representatives are mainly found in the Afrotropis and Orientalis . Only the kingfisher ( Alcedo atthis ), which is also native to Central Europe, is distributed over large parts of the Palearctic and is also found in South Asia and New Guinea . At times almost twenty species were placed in this genus, now it only contains seven (or eight, according to another opinion). The remainder were allocated to other closely related genera based on the findings from genetic comparative studies.

The name Alcedo is the Latin word for "kingfisher" and comes from the ancient Greek word (h) alcyon (ἀλκυών / ἁλκυών), which denoted a mythical bird (see Halcyon days ).

All species are shock divers who hunt from a seat guard and breed in self-dug burrows.

description

The species of the genus Alcedo belong to the small kingfishers with body lengths between 13 and 22 cm and a weight between 16 and 49 g. The plumage is brightly colored with a shiny blue or turquoise upper side and, in most species, orange to brick-red, in some species white. There is usually a separate, white field on or behind the ear region.

The laterally compressed beak is predominantly black in all species and only more than a third red at the base of the lower beak in females. This is usually the only difference between the sexes. Only in the two species A. peninsulae and A. euryzona , which are native to Southeast Asia , which are often grouped together as one species, is there a clear sexual dimorphism in the plumage: in the females of both species the belly is orange, in the male it is white; in A. euryzona the female also lacks the blue chest band.

The tail is very short and rounded and two thirds or even three quarters of it is covered by the slightly tattered upper tail covers.

species

Currently (as of 2015) there are usually seven species belonging to the genus Alcedo . The Handbook of the Birds of the World also indicate any Alcedo euryzona in two ways - the Java endemic type A. euryzona and the populations of Sumatra, Borneo and the mainland as peninsulae Alcedo . This is justified with the smaller size, the more pronounced sexual dimorphism (females without breast band) and some plumage characteristics in Alcedo peninsulae .

literature

  • Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim , KM Bauer : Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Volume 9: Columbiformes - Piciformes. AULA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1993/2001, ISBN 3-923527-00-4 , p. 735 (first edition 1980).
  • PF Woodall: Family Alcedinidae . (2001/2013). In: Josep del Hoyo , A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2014.
  • Robert G. Moyle: A Molecular Phylogeny of Kingfishers (Alcedinidae) with Insights into Early Biogeographic History . In: The Auk , 123 (2), pp. 487-499, 200

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2014
  2. ↑ Moyle (2007), see literature
  3. ↑ Viktor Wember: The names of the birds in Europe - meaning of the German and scientific names , Aula-Verlag, Wiebelsheim 2007, ISBN 3-89104-709-6
  4. ↑ JA Jobling: Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology (2015) in: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2015
  5. ↑ a b c d e Glutz von Blotzheim (1980), p. 735, see literature
  6. ↑ Josep del Hoyo, Nigel Collar: Malay Blue-banded Kingfisher (Alcedo peninsulae) (2014), in: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2014

Web links

Commons : Alcedo  - collection of images, videos and audio files