The Philippine dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx melanurus'') 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 lightweig ...

in the family Alcedinidae that is endemic to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

found in the islands of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

Polillo Islands The Polillo Islands is a group of about 27 islands in the Philippine Sea lying about to the east of the Philippine island of Luzon. It is separated from Luzon Island by the Polillo Strait and forms the northern side of Lamon Bay. The islands ...

Catanduanes Catanduanes (; ), officially the Province of Catanduanes, is an island province located in the Bicol Region of Luzon in the Philippines. It is the 12th-largest island in the Philippines, and lies to the east of Camarines Sur, across Maqueda ...

Basilan Basilan, officially the Province of Basilan ( cbk, Provincia de Basilan; yka, Wilayah Basilanin; tsg, Wilaya' sin Basilan; fil, Lalawigan ng Basilan), is an island province of the Philippines located primarily in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Reg ...

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has be ...

and

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

. 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 ...

is 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. But it is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Taxonomy and description

The Philippine dwarf kingfisher is a small mostly orange kingfisher with a red beak and legs, and a white belly. It has a light lilac hue which is more intense in the southern subspecies and has dark blue spotted wings for the northern subspecies. The Philippine kingfisher was formally described by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848 under the binomial name ''Alcedo melanura''. The specific epithet is from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''melanouros'' meaning "with a black tail". The Philippine dwarf kingfisher is now placed in the genus '' Ceyx'' that was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognised: * ''C. m. melanurus'' ( Kaup, 1848) –

, Polillo, Alabat and

(north Philippines) * ''C. m. samarensis'' Steere, 1890 –

and

(east central Philippines) * ''C. m. mindanensis'' Steere, 1890 –

and

(south Philippines) The subspecies ''C. m. mindanensis'' is sometimes treated as a separate species, the south Philippine dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx mindanensis''), with the nominate and ''samarensis'' classified by the Handbook of the Birds of the World as the north Philippine dwarf kingfisher. The two proposed species are differentiated by color and size: north Philippine dwarf kingfishers have dark blue spotted wings and ears and are slightly smaller than south Philippine dwarf kingfishers, which have a more noticeable lilac hue and are overall more uniform orange. In March 2020 a fledgling of the ''C. m. mindanensis'' subspecies was photographed for the first time by the Robert S. Kennedy Conservation Society led by Miguel David De Leon in Cagayan de Oro.

Habitat and conservation status

It is found in lowland primary and secondary forest up to 750 meters above sea level. It prefers areas with high rainfall. The

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

follows the Handbook of the Birds of the World thus assesses the North and South subspecies separately. Both species or subspecies have been assessed as vulnerable with the population believed to be on the decline. The Southern subspecies has a lower estimated population of 2,500 to 9,999 mature individuals with the Northern subspecies estimated at 10,000 - 19,999. This species' main threat is

with wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of logging, agricultural conversion and mining activities occurring within the range. There are currently no targeted conservation plans for the species. It occurs in a few protected areas throughout its range like the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park,

Bataan National Park Bataan National Park is a List of protected areas of the Philippines, protected area of the Philippines located in the mountainous interior of Bataan province in the Central Luzon Region. The park straddles the northern half of Bataan Peninsula n ...

, Samar Island Natural Park, Mount Kitanglad National Park but protection and enforcement from loggers and hunters is still lax.

References

External links

"How an Eye Surgeon Got a Picture of This Rare Pastel Bird"
{{Taxonbar, from=Q581060

Philippine dwarf kingfisher The Philippine dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx melanurus'') is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae that is endemic to the Philippines found in the islands of Luzon, Polillo Islands, Catanduanes, Basilan, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. Its natural h ...

Endemic birds of the Philippines

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot