The hook-billed kingfisher (''Melidora macrorrhina'') is a species of
kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
in the subfamily
Halcyoninae
The tree kingfishers, also called wood kingfishers or Halcyoninae, are the most numerous of the three family (biology), subfamilies of birds in the kingfisher family, with around 70 species divided into 12 genus, genera, including several specie ...
that is resident in the lowland forested areas of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
and some of the nearby islands. It is the only member of the genus ''Melidora''.
Taxonomy
The first
formal description of the hook-billed kingfisher was by the French surgeon and naturalist
René Lesson
René-Primevère Lesson (20 March 1794 – 28 April 1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist.
Biography
Lesson was born at Rochefort, and entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen. He ...
in 1827 under the
binomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''Dacelo macrorrhina''. The hook-billed kingfisher is now the only species placed within the genus ''Melidora'' which was introduced by Lesson in 1830.
[ The title page has the year 1831.] The name of the genus probably comes from the classical Greek ''mēlis'' for "yellow" and ''doru'' for "spear". The specific epithet ''macrorrhina'' is from the classical Greek ''makros'' for "long" and ''rhis'' for "nose".
There are three subspecies:
[
* ''M. m. waigiuensis'' ]Hartert
Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist.
Life and career
Hartert was born in Hamburg, Germany on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrator Claudia Bernadine E ...
, 1930 – Waigeo Island
Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the north-wes ...
* ''M. m. macrorrhina'' (Lesson, R, 1827) – west, central, and east New Guinea, Misool
Misool, formerly spelled Mysol (Dutch: Misoöl) or Misol, is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. Its area is 2,034 km2. The highest point is 561 m and the main towns are Waigama, located ...
and Batanta Islands
* ''M. m. jobiensis'' Salvadori, 1880 – north New Guinea and Yapen Island
Yapen (also Japan, Jobi) is an island of Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is Mios Num Island a ...
Description
The hook-billed kingfisher is a large dumpy kingfisher with a length of and a weight of .[
]
Behaviour
Breeding
The hook-billed kingfisher excavates a nest chamber in an active arboreal termite nest above the ground. The clutch is two white eggs which hatch asynchronously. The male helps to incubate the eggs and brood the young.[
]
Feeding
It feeds on insects and frogs. It may dig into the soil searching for prey in a similar manner to the shovel-billed kookaburra
The shovel-billed kookaburra (''Clytoceyx rex''), also known as the shovel-billed kingfisher, is a large, approximately 33 cm (13 in) long, dark brown tree kingfisher with a heavy, short, and broad bill that is unique among the kingfish ...
.[
]
References
External links
Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the hook-billed kingfisher
hook-billed kingfisher
Birds of New Guinea
hook-billed kingfisher
Taxa named by René Lesson
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Coraciiformes-stub