The American pygmy kingfisher (''Chloroceryle aenea'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of "water kingfisher" in subfamily

Cerylinae The water kingfishers or Cerylinae are one of the three subfamilies of kingfishers, and are also known as the cerylid kingfishers. All six American species are in this subfamily. These are all specialist fish-eating species, unlike many repre ...

of family Alcedinidae. It is found in the American tropics from southern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

south through

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

into every mainland

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n country except

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. It also occurs on

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved 13 December 2022Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 24 July 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The first formal description of the American pygmy kingfisher was by the German zoologist

Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery ...

in 1764 under the binomial name ''Alcedo aenea''. The specific epithet ''aenea'' is from the Latin ''aeneus'' meaning "of a bronze colour". The current genus ''Chloroceryle'' was erected by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2006 found that the American pygmy kingfisher was a

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to a clade containing the

green-and-rufous kingfisher The green-and-rufous kingfisher (''Chloroceryle inda'') is a species of "water kingfisher" in subfamily Cerylinae of family Alcedinidae. It is found in the American tropics from Nicaragua to Panama and in every mainland South American countr ...

(''C. inda'') and the

green kingfisher The green kingfisher (''Chloroceryle americana'') is a species of "water kingfisher" in subfamily Cerylinae of family Alcedinidae. It is found from southern Texas in the United States south through Central America, in every mainland South Amer ...

(''C. americana''). Two subspecies are currently recognized, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

''C. a. aenea'' (

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

, 1764) and ''C. a. stictoptera'' ( Ridgway, 1884). Chloroceryle aenea-03

Description

The American pygmy kingfisher is about long. Males weigh and females . It has the typical kingfisher shape, with a shaggy crest and long heavy bill. The bill is black with some pale yellow at the base of the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

and its legs and feet are pinkish to light gray. Males of the nominate subspecies have a dark glossy green head and upperparts with a golden wash separated by a narrow rufous collar. Their tail is a bluer green. They have black lores with a thin rufous line in front of the eye. Their chin, throat, and most of their underparts are rufous that is deeper on the breast and flanks. The center of their breast and their undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are s ...

are white. Adult females are similar with the addition of a dark green band across their upper breast. Juveniles have paler underparts than adults and buffy spots on their wings; males have green-black streaks on their breast and females' breast band is often incomplete. Subspecies ''C. a. stictoptera'' has obvious lines of white spots on their secondaries and some white on the rump.Woodall, P. F. (2020). American Pygmy Kingfisher (''Chloroceryle aenea''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ampkin1.01 retrieved December 13, 2022 The two forms intergrade in central Costa Rica.

Distribution and habitat

Suspecies ''C. a. stictoptera'' of American pygmy kingfisher is the more northerly of the two. It is found from the southern Mexican states of Puebla,

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...

, and Chiapas south through

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

to central Costa Rica. The nominate subspecies is found from central Costa Rica (where it overlaps ''stictoptera'') through Panama into Colombia. From there it occurs west of the Andes to central Ecuador and east and south into Venezuela,

the Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

, and most of Amazonian Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. Its range extends slightly into Paraguay and Argentina and also includes Trinidad. The American pygmy kingfisher inhabits dense forest, where it occurs along small streams and rivers, beside pools, in swamps, and along tidal channels in mangroves. It shuns open landscapes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Movement

The American pygmy kingfisher is assumed to be sedentary.

Feeding

The American pygmy kingfisher hunts from a low perch from which it dives into water for its prey. Its diet includes small fish such as those of families

Characidae Characidae, the characids or characins is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their ...

and Cyprinodontidae, tadpoles and frogs, and large insects such as damselflies. It has been reported but not confirmed that it catches insects on the wing.

Breeding

The American pygmy kingfisher's breeding season varies geographically, apparently from January in Mexico to as late as September in Trinidad. Both members of a pair excavate a burrow in a river bank, road cutting, gravel pit, arboreal termitarium, or the root ball of a fallen tree. it is typically long and has a nest chamber at the end. The clutch size is three or four eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.

Vocalization

The American pygmy kingfisher makes a " ak, repeated 'tik' or 'dzit, tsweek' sometimes faster as a rattle or chatter". What is thought to be its song is "a series of musical chirps."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the American pygmy kingfisher as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range. Its estimated population of at least a half million mature individuals is, however, believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.

References

External links

Stamps
(for El Salvador) with RangeMap

VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q588267 American pygmy kingfisher Birds of Mexico Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of Central America Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Birds of El Salvador Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Panama Birds of South America Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of the Guianas Birds of Brazil Birds of the Pantanal Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador American pygmy kingfisher Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas