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African Pygmy Kingfi sher Source Internet: Bird Wallpapers

In Green Space Our Place’s Quarterly Magazine (Issue 33, December 2021), I discussed Australia’s two water / river kingfi shers (Little and Azure), and the migratory Buff breasted Paradise-Kingfi sher of the forest / tree kingfi sher group. In this Part 2 article, I will continue with this diverse and colourful group. Most kingfi shers are easily recognisable by their obvious physical characteristics. The oversized bill; short neck; top-heavy appearance; usually thickset body, short tail and legs; and at least some blue feathers, distinguish a kingfi sher. Some people comment that a kookaburra looks just like a big kingfi sher, not necessarily realising they have recognised the characteristics that make the kingfi sher group unique. Water (aka river) kingfi shers usually have very long bills like tweezers - better for hunting fi sh, whereas most tree (aka forest) kingfi shers have broader bills and usually take prey on the ground. The latter group is a larger, more diversifi ed family that doesn’t necessarily need to be near water. Kingfi shers have a big advantage: superb colour-sensitive and binocular vision that enables them to see small prey from surprisingly long distances. This also enables water kingfi shers to accurately judge water depth. Typically, they perch immobile on a branch or rock (some hover), looking down to locate their prey. Some bob their heads to judge aim, distance and, if hunting in water, water refraction, and wave their wings to startle the prey into moving and becoming more visible. Once focused on their prey, kingfi shers dive head-fi rst onto it, either in water or on the ground, catching it with their bills (not their feet as do raptors). Water kingfi shers sometimes ‘fl y’ in the water to pursue fi sh, and have nictitating membranes to protect their eyes. After catching their prey and returning to their perch, kingfi shers tenderise and ‘juggle’ it into the right position to swallow it whole. Many kingfi shers are brightly coloured in blues (particularly on the wings) and greens, some with patches of white and variations of red. In some species the underparts are shades of rufous or orange, eg African Pygmy Kingfi sher. Cape York Peninsula’s Yellow-billed Kingfi sher, though mainly orange and green, has a blue rump and tail. Some kingfi shers are marked with bars or spots, and diff erences between sexes in most kingfi shers are minimal. Only the widespread (Africa, Asia and Middle East) Pied Kingfi sher (Ceryle rudis) is entirely black and white. Adult males have two black bands across their white breast: the upper band broad, the lower one narrow. Females have only one black, incomplete breast-band limited to a patch on each side of the breast.

Pied Kingfi shers feed on fi sh in open wetlands. They often hover above the water, then dive to seize their lunch. They nest in excavated burrows in banks: sometimes in pairs, sometimes in small colonies.

Kingfi shers also vary considerably in size: from the world’s smallest, 10-12cm African Pygmy Kingfi sher, to the largest, Australia’s 40-48cm Laughing Kookaburra.  The tiny, unobtrusive African Pygmy Kingfi sher (Ceyx pictus), pictured above, has rich blues, oranges and a mauve face patch. Sexes are alike in this colourful, attractive species. They perch on low branches and dart into grass for insects, and typically of many kingfi sher species, nest in burrows dug in earth banks. African Pygmy Kingfi shers are widespread in sub-Saharan Africa (including Kenya and Tanzania). They prefer forests and woodlands, sometimes visiting cultivated areas, but are not usually found near water. On the opposite side of the size scale (pictured right), the world’s largest kingfi sher is Australia’s iconic Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae): world famous for its wild laughing call which starts with low repeated chuckles that build to a crescendo of loud ‘laughter’. This is so regular in the bush, especially at dawn and dusk, that it was and may still be known ‘out bush’ as the ‘bushman’s clock’.

The word ‘kookaburra’ comes from the Australian Indigenous Wiradjuri word “guuguubarra”. When pronounced correctly, this onomatopoeic word is said to resemble the Laughing Kookaburra’s raucous call.

Laughing Kookaburras live in family groups of up to 12. Most bird species drive their off spring from their territories as soon as they are independent, but young kookaburras continue to live with their family for about four years. During this time, they help their parents with incubation and brooding duties for the following two or three generations, and supply the nestlings with much of their food. This undoubtedly also benefi ts the young kookaburras as practice for when they become parents themselves. Families also kidnap fl edglings from other family groups and rear them with their current brood, thereby enlarging the family to help with the following two or three years’ broods. It’s thought the breeding capacity of these young birds is suppressed by their subordinate position in the family hierarchy. Naturally occurring Laughing Kookaburras are widespread in eastern Australia, from the top of Queensland’s Cape York to the bottom of Tasmania, and eastern South Australia. They are not native to Western Australia or Northern Territory. In south-west Western Australia, the introduced population continues to expand and negatively impact on the indigenous local fauna (see Did You Know for more information).

Above: Pied Kingfi sher hovering over the Okavango Delta wetland, Botswana, Africa Photo: Robert Bartos

Right: Laughing Kingfi sher. Photo: Jennifer H. Muir

JOHN PETER BirdLife Australia

JenniFer H. Muir

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon

Keeping an eye out for the birds is a great way to mark the passage of the seasons, and in Cairns, one of the most obvious is the Torresian Imperial-Pigeon. One of the fi rst signs that the Dry Season is drawing to a close is the arrival of these large, black-and-white pigeons, as their return signifi es that the annual build-up is imminent. Familiar throughout the Wet Tropics, they’re often seen conspicuously festooning the branches of trees in parks and gardens, or in mangroves. However, when foraging on fruit among the dense foliage of rainforests, they’re sometimes surprisingly diffi cult to spot. Traditionally, when Torresian Imperial-Pigeons arrived back in northern Australia, having spent the Dry Season in New Guinea, they’d head to off shore islands to nest in large colonies, commuting between their island and the mainland each day to feed. However, since Cyclone Yasi wrought signifi cant damage to island vegetation in 2011, increasing numbers have chosen to nest in trees on the mainland instead, and the number of nests around suburban Cairns has increased greatly in the past decade or so. Nevertheless, many of the birds still breed on islands. Each nest, a loose platform of sticks, contains a single white egg, and nests may be as close as a metre apart, but are usually more widely dispersed. Now with the Dry approaching once more, the Torresian Imperial Pigeons are beginning to migrate back to New Guinea — keep an eye out for them as they fl y past on passage.