Family: The sacred kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) is a medium-sized bird belonging to the kingfisher subfamily Halcyoninae.
Other Name: It is also known as the Respected Kingfisher and Venerated Kingfisher.
Habitat: Sacred kingfishers are the most familiar of the smaller Australian kingfishers. Birds can be found in all types of open, wooded country, along streams, near dams, and even in mangroves. A Collared Kingfisher and an Azure Kingfisher are often confused with this species. A Collared bird is characterized by its larger size and pure white breast, while an Azure bird has a deep royal blue back and a short cut-off tail.
The Sacred Kingfisher’s breast color can vary perplexingly from ochre-buff to dull white, due to wear or fading. The birds are usually more colorful in winter and early spring than in late summer before the post-breeding molt. In most cases, the Sacred Kingfisher, a land kingfisher, breeds alone, pairing only for breeding. As autumn approaches, the birds form family groups for a short time before dispersing.
Each sexe excavates the nesting burrow, incubates the eggs, raises the young, and defends its nest tenaciously. Initially, the birds fly at the burrow site like guided missiles to determine whether it’s a burrow. They dig by using their bill as a pick and their feet to claw out debris. During display, both sexes engage in courtship feeding but do not wing-wave.
Identification: The male bird head is dusky turquoise-green, with an ochre-buff spot in front of each eye; and a broad black band from the base of the bill through the eyes and ear coverts and around the nape, bordered below by an ochre to cream collar. Mantle and shoulders are dusky turquoise-green grading to bright turquoise-blue on the lower back and rump. Tail turquoise-blue above, dull grey below.
The wings are a vibrant blue with black on-flight feathers. Chin and throat are cream or white, grading to rich ochre-cinnamon on the breast, belly, and crissum. The eyes are dark brown. The bill is black with a flesh-colored mandible base. Feet are dark grey-brown to black. The female bird is similar to the male, but the crown, back, wings, and tail are duller and greyer.
The underparts are usually lighter. In many ways, the immature is like a female. Birds up to one year extensively flecked and scalloped with dark brown on collar, sides of face, breast, and belly, with cinnamon-cream edging on forehead, shoulders, and wing coverts; bill and feet pale.
Migration: From March to October, they migrate to islands north of Australia to spend the winter there. In southern Australia, however, the birds arrive to breed from late August to October, announcing their presence with staccato calls and tail raisings as they establish a territory. However, not all of them may migrate; seasonal movements are apparent in southern Australia only.
Diet: Sacred kingfishers feed on a wide variety of invertebrates, including small reptiles, spiders, crustaceans, crickets, grasshoppers, fish, frogs, beetles, and their larvae when they are near water, as well as freshwater and saltwater crustaceans.
The Sacred Kingfisher feeds like the Forest Kingfisher and the Red-backed Kingfisher, spending most of its time perched on a small, low branch. They sit very still and occasionally bobble their heads as they watch for prey, then plummet to eat it, grasping it in the bill, and flying back up to a perch. In New Zealand, the sacred kingfisher is called kotare.
Nest & Breed: In southern Australia, nesting and breeding take place between September and March. A season usually consists of two broods. Burrows are located 1-20 meters above ground in arboreal termite mounds, hollow limbs, earth banks, and fence posts.
Eggs: There are three to six eggs; smooth, glossy white; oval, about 26 x 22 mm. Both sexes incubate for 16-17 days. Four weeks after hatching, the young will fledged.
Vocalizations: A sacred kingfisher’s call is loud, measured, three-four-syllable, staccato, and repeated monotonously or on the same pitch throughout the day. Sometimes in excitement, kee-kee-ee-ee is modified and strained, while rising trills and harsh churring notes occur in alarm. When not breeding, they are usually silent.
Distribution: In Australia, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, New Guinea, eastern Indonesia, much of northern and western Melanesia, and the Kermadec Islands, sacred kingfishers can be found. Along coastal and subcoastal Australia, it can be found in tall, open eucalypt forests and woodlands, paperbark forests, mangroves, and along wooded rivers.
A race of Australians with whiter breasts that winters on islands north of Australia from Timar to the Solomon Islands. Other resident races on islands from New Zealand to Loyalties in the southwestern Pacific.
Size: The Sacred Kingfisher size is about 200-230 mm long with males weighing 28–61 grams and females 28–56 grams.
Status: Least Concern
Read More – Little Kingfisher (Ceyx pusillus)
