Indonesia birdwatching, Birding Sulawesi, Birding West Papua and Birding Halmahera: Kingfisher on The List

Local Photography Tour Companies and Guides

Sultan Birding is the Wildlife Photography and Birding Tour Companies in Indonesia offer different photography tours and trips catering for the beginner to the photography expert. Contact Sultan Birding, a local Wildlife Photography and Birding Tour Companies and Guides to enquire directly about your next photography journey and birdwatching trip to Indonesia including Sulawesi, West Papua for Birds of Paradise, Halmahera, Flores and Bali. Bird photography offered can either be photography specific.

A large globally distributed family of at least 121 species, kingfisher ranging in length from 10 to 42 cm (4 to 16.5 inches). All species have a proportionately large bill, large head, short neck and syndactylous toes. Plumages range from cryptic to brilliantly coloured, some species having extravagant long tail. Most are forest-dwelling, many use termitaria or three holes for nesting. and few are water-based with a diet centred on fish and crabs. The group is sometimes divided into three families, namely the riverkingfisher (Alcedininae), the tree kingfisher (Halcyoninae) and kookabura (Dacelo)

Kingfishers feed on a wide variety of prey. They are most famous for hunting and eating fish, and some species do specialise in caching fish, but other species take crustaceans, frogs and other amphibians, annelid worms, molluscs, insects, spiders, centipedes, reptiles (including snakes), and even birds and mammals. Individual species may specialise in a fiew items or take a wide variety of prey, and for species with large global distributions, different populations may have different diets. Kingfisher usually hunt from an exposed perch, when the prey item is observed, the kingfisher swoops down to snatch it, then it returns to the perch. Kingfisher of all three families beat larger prey on a perch to kill the prey and to dislodge or break protective spines and bones.

Kingfishers are territorial, some species defending their territories vigorously. They are generally monogamous, although cooperative breeding has been observed in some species and is quite common in others, for example the laughing kookaburra, where helpers aid the dominant breeding pair in raising the young.

Like all Coraciiformes, the kingfishers are cavity nesters, with most species nesting in holes dug in the ground. These holes are usually in earth banks on the sides of the rivers, lakes or man-made ditches. Some species may nest in holes in trees, the earth clinging to the roots of an uprooted tree, or arboreal nests of termites (termitarium). These termite nests are common in forest species. The nests take the form of a small chamber at the end of a tunnel. Nest-digging duties are shared between the genders. During the initial excavations, the bird may fly at the chosen site with considerable force, and birds have injured themselves fatally while doing this. The length of the tunnels varies by species and location, nests in termitariums are necessarily much shorter than those dug into the earth, and nests in harder substrates are shorter than those in soft soil or sand.

Here's some kingfisher photos from Sulawesi :