Dwarf king fisherman
| Dwarf king fisherman | ||||||||||||
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Dwarf king fisherman |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ispidina picta | ||||||||||||
| ( Boddaert , 1783) |
The dwarf king fisher ( Ispidina picta , Syn . : Ceyx pictus ) is a bird from the kingfishers family .
Appearance
The trunk of the adult dwarf king fisherman is rust-colored, the wings are bright dark blue. The tail and top of the head are also blue. The cheeks are light pink-purple, this color extends to the neck. There is a small white spot between the cheek and neck, and the throat is also white. The long, straight beak and legs are bright red. The bird reaches a size of about 11 cm.
It can be distinguished from the similar-looking malachite kingfisher by the color of the cheeks and the extent of the blue plumage on the sides of the head: The malachite kingfisher has blue plumage up to the eyes, while the dwarf kingfisher has a rust-colored band from the eyes is separated.
The plumage of juveniles is almost as colored as that of adult birds, but more dull. The beak is shorter and gray-black.
The subspecies I. p. Occurring in the southern distribution area . natalensis differs from the nominate form in the following features: The abdominal plumage is paler and there is another bruise above the white patch on the cheek.
The call is a high " tsi-tsi " and a beeping chirp.
distribution and habitat
The dwarf king fisherman occurs exclusively in Africa and there at altitudes of up to 1500 meters, rarely up to 2000 meters. Its distribution area extends from the southern edge of the Sahara to South Africa with the exception of the dry southwest and the Horn of Africa .
Forests, thickets and grasslands are populated if there are bushes and trees there. The bird is also found far from water, as its food consists of insects and is therefore not, like many other fish-eating kingfisher species , bound to water.
Way of life
From the subspecies I. p. natalensis is known to migrate: the breeding areas are in central and southern Tanzania ; after the breeding season from September to April, the bird migrates north to the coastal forests and thickets of Kenya .
swell
- Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe: Birds of East Africa. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton 2002, ISBN 978-0-691-12665-4 , p. 226.
Web links
- Ispidina picta inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2014.