Fishing kingfisher
Fishing kingfisher | ||||||||||
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Gray fisherman ( Ceryle rudis ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||
Cerylinae | ||||||||||
Reichenbach , 1851 |
The fishing kingfishers or water kingfishers (Cerylinae) are one of three subfamilies of the kingfishers ; all six American kingfisher species belong to this subfamily.
distribution
The four large "crested kingfishers" ( Megaceryle ) are widespread across Africa, Asia and America. The belt fisherman ( M. alcyon ) is the only species that is widespread across North America , although the red-breasted fisherman ( M. torquata ) also occurs north to Texas and Arizona . The gray fisherman ( Ceryle rudis ), the only species of the genus Ceryle , is widespread across the warm regions of the Old World and reaches Turkey and China in the north . The green fish ( Chloroceryle ) occur in tropical America, a species also to South Texas.
evolution
All species are specialized fish-eaters. Since many members of the other subfamilies also eat fish, it is likely that all fishing kingbirds descended from those fish-eating species with new populations established in the New World . It used to be thought that the entire group unfolded in America, but it does not appear to be the case. The original ancestral species may have developed in Africa - certainly in the Old World . The species of the genus Chloroceryle are evolutionarily youngest.
No more than 5 million years ago - possibly less than 2.9 million years ago - an "old world giant fisherman " became the ancestral species of belt fishermen and red-breasted fishermen ; later another, with the Graufischer related species to the ancestral species of Chloroceryle species, after America was colonized. During the evolutionary history of the fishing kingfishers - taking into account their assumed relationship to one another - it is not completely clear whether they descended from the real kingfishers or the Liesten ("tree kingfishers") , and whether they crossed the Atlantic or the Pacific (although the former is more likely).
Systematics
There are nine species in three genera:
- Genus Megaceryle - 4 species
- Giant fisherman ( Megaceryle maxima )
- Sorrowfish ( Megaceryle lugubris )
- Belt fisherman ( Megaceryle alcyon )
- Red-breasted fisherman ( Megaceryle torquata )
- Genus Ceryle - 1 kind
- Gray fisherman ( Ceryle rudis )
- Genus Chloroceryle ( Green Fish ) - 4 species
- Amazon fisherman ( Chloroceryle amazona )
- Green fisherman ( Chloroceryle americana )
- Two-color fisherman ( Chloroceryle inda )
- Archfisherman ( Chloroceryle aenea )
swell
- Fry, K & Fry, HC (1999): Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. new edition. Christopher Helm Publishers, ISBN 0-7136-5206-3 .
- Moyle, Robert G. (2006): A Molecular Phylogeny of Kingfishers (Alcedinidae) With Insights into Early Biogeographic History . Auk . 123 (2), pp. 487-499.
Web links
- Water kingfisher videos on the Internet Bird Collection