Giant kingfisher

Giant kingfisher
Male, Lake Naivasha, Kenya
Female near Triangle, Zimbabwe
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Alcedinidae
Subfamily:	Cerylinae
Genus:	Megaceryle
Species:	M. maxima
Binomial name
Megaceryle maxima (Pallas, 1769)
distribution

The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert other than the arid southwest.

Subspecies

There are two subspecies, M. m. maxima, found in open country, and M. m. gigantea in the rainforest. The forest race is darker, less spotted above, and more barred below than maxima, but the two forms intergrade along the forest edge zone.

Reproduction

Breeding is from August to January, 3–5 eggs being laid in a riverbank tunnel.

Description

The giant kingfisher is 42–48 cm (16½-18⅞ inches) long, with a large crest and finely spotted white on black upperparts. The male has a chestnut breast band and otherwise white underparts with dark flank barring, and the female has a white-spotted black breast band and chestnut belly.

Call

The call is a loud wak wak wak.

Diet

This large species feeds on crabs, fish, and frogs, caught in the typical kingfisher way by a dive from a perch.

• 
  Female smashing a tilapia against a post to break its spine
  Lake Naivasha, Kenya

References

• C H Fry; Kathie Fry (2000). Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. Illustrated by Alan Harris. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04879-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |last-author-amp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)

External links

• Giant kingfisher - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.