Kingfisher
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.jpg) Belted Kingfisher Ceryle alcyon, | ||||||||||
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Kingfishers are birds of the three closely related families Alcedinidae (river kingfishers), Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers), and Cerylidae (water or belted kingfishers). There are about 90 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. They are found throughout the world.
The taxonomy of the two families is complex and rather controversial. Although commonly assigned to the order Coraciiformes, from this level down confusion sets in. The kingfishers were traditionally treated as one family, Alcedinidae with three subfamilies, but following the 1990s revolution in bird taxonomy, the three former subfamilies are now usually elevated to familial level; a move supported by chromosome and DNA-DNA hybridisation studies, but challenged on the grounds that all three groups are monophyletic with respect to the other Coraciiformes; which leads to them being grouped as the suborder Alcedines. The tree kingfishers have been previously given the familial name Dacelonidae but Halcyonidae has priority.
Kingfishers live in both woodland and water. The Laughing Kookaburra, at 45 cm the world's largest kingfisher, is a woodland bird, while the European Kingfisher Alcedo atthis is always found near fresh water.
The Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon), a water species, is the only one commonly found in the United States.
Kingfishers that live near water hunt small fish by diving. They also eat crayfish, frogs, and insects. Wood kingfishers eat reptiles. Kingfishers of both families beat their prey to death, either by whipping it against a tree or by dropping it on a stone.
Europe and North America are very poorly represented compared to the tropics, with only one common and a couple of uncommon or very local species each (Ringed Kingfisher and Green Kingfisher in the SE USA, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Kingfisher in SE Europe). For example, the tiny country of The Gambia has eight species in its 120 by 20 mile area.