The Melanesian kingfisher (''Todiramphus tristrami'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Alcedinidae. It is endemic to the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

and the northwest and central

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s and

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the

collared kingfisher The collared kingfisher (''Todiramphus chloris'') is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the white-collared kingfisher, black-masked kingfisher or mangrove kingfisher. It has ...

Subspecies

* ''T. t. nusae'' (Heinroth, 1902) -

New Hanover Island New Hanover Island, (german: Neuhannover), also called Lavongai, is a large volcanic island in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. This region is part of the Bismarck Archipelago and lies at . Measuring some , it had a population of 5, ...

, New Ireland (except southwest), and Feni Islands * ''T. t. matthiae'' (Heinroth, 1902) -

St Matthias Islands The St Matthias Islands (also known as the Mussau islands) are a small archipelago group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, in northern Papua New Guinea. They are within New Ireland Province. Geography There are at least 10 islands. The larg ...

(Bismarck Arch.) * ''T. t. stresemanni'' (Laubmann, 1923) - islands between

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

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

* ''T. t. novaehiberniae'' (Hartert, 1925) - southwest New Ireland (Bismarck Arch.) * ''T. t. bennetti'' (Ripley, 1947)

Nissan Island Nissan Island (also Green Island or Sir Charles Hardy Island) is the largest of the Green Islands of Papua New Guinea. It is located at , about 200 km east of Rabaul on New Britain and about 200 km north-west of Bougainville. The isl ...

(Bismarck Arch.) * ''T. t. tristrami'' (Layard, EL, 1880) - New Britain (Bismarck Arch.) * ''T. t. alberti'' (Rothschild & Hartert, 1905) Buku southeast to

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

(northwest and central Solomon Is.)

References

External links

Melanesian kingfisher Birds of the Bismarck Archipelago Birds of the Solomon Islands Melanesian kingfisher Melanesian kingfisher {{Coraciiformes-stub