The chocolate-backed kingfisher (''Halcyon badia'') is a species of
kingfisher in the subfamily
Halcyoninae which occurs in western
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
.
Description
The chocolate-backed kingfisher has the typical stocky kingfisher shape with dark upper parts and pure white underparts. The head and hind neck are very dark brown, the mantle is brownish black, the back is black, the rump a brilliant iridescent blue, the upper tail coverts are black, and the tail is pale blue. The wings are dark, apart from a brilliant azure speculum formed in the outer webs of the secondary feathers. The underparts from the throat to the vent are snowy white, apart from a small blackish flank patch, and are clearly demarcated from the dark upper parts. In flight the brilliant blue rump and
speculum are distinctive. The bill is red or reddish brown. Juveniles are similar to adults, except that the breast is scalloped and the bill is blackish with an orange tip.
Voice
A harsh screeching alarm note is given. The song is a high pitched, barely audible introductory "''pee''" followed by 12-17 long flutelike pure tones which are evenly spaced and far carrying, lasting 5–7 seconds, and sometimes falling away toward the last few notes.
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Distribution
The chocolate-backed kingfisher occurs across the African tropical rainforest : west of the Dahomey Gap
In West Africa, the Dahomey Gap refers to the portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo, and Ghana, thus separating the forest zone that covers much of the south of the region into two separat ...
from Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
to Ghana, then from southern Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
east to southern Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...
and western Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
, south to the Kwango River in northern Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
. It is also found on Bioko.[
]
Habitat
The chocolate-backed kingfisher is not associated with water and is a bird of primary and secondary lowland rain forest.
Habits
The chocolate-backed kingfisher spends much of its time perched quietly quite high up in trees that overlook a clearing. It flies out from this perch to catch prey in the air or drops from the perch onto prey on the ground. It has been recorded attacking columns of driver ants and feeding on either the driver ants themselves or the insects their columns flush. They feed on insects, mainly grasshoppers and beetles, but also many other invertebrates as well as small lizards.[
They excavate their nests in the earth nests of the arboreal ]termite
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
s of the genus ''Nasutitermes
''Nasutitermes'' is a genus of termites with a tropical distribution world-wide.
Species
The ''Termite Catalogue'' lists the following:
# '' Nasutitermes acajutlae''
# '' Nasutitermes acangussu''
# '' Nasutitermes acutus''
# '' Nasutitermes ...
''. The termites fix their nests to a liana
A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a ta ...
or vine or angled branch at about 4–5 m (13–16 ft) above the forest floor. The kingfishers excavate their nest horizontally from the side and can dig out most of the termite's structure; the termites react by sealing themselves off from the cavity created by the birds. They also sometimes use hanging ant nests.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1274112
chocolate-backed kingfisher
Birds of the Gulf of Guinea
Birds of the African tropical rainforest
chocolate-backed kingfisher
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot