Throated Kingfisher – Halcyon smyrnensis

Throated Kingfisher – Halcyon smyrnensis

Throated Kingfisher- Halcyon smyrnensis

The Throated Kingfisher belongs to the Alcedinidae family. It lives mainly in the Middle East, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, South Asia.

Its size is about 28 cm and its weight of about 85gr. Head, neck and shoulders are chocolate brown. This staining continued on the flanks, the abdomen and the underside of the tail. Throat and breast are white. The beak is massive and legs are bright red. The back, the central part of the wings, the top of the relatively long tail are bright blue. The tips of the wings have grayish black tips.

It occurs at the edge of ditches and rivers, rice fields, sparse jungle, urban gardens, fish ponds and beaches. In the plains, it is common but it also amounts to about 1.500.

Alone or in pairs, it stands perched monitors the area before taking off on a prey .

In India, nesting was observed between January and August, Iraq between April and May. The nest is a gallery dug, it is covered with debris prey when young are hatched. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs with a size of 30 mm, male and female participate in all tasks, drill the nest, incubation and feeding. The parents feed the nestlings mainly on insects.

It has a varied diet. The list of foods includes fish, frogs, lizards, young birds, rodents, crabs, insects, grasshoppers, mantises, beetles, crickets, dragonflies, scorpions and centipedes. In fact, the fish are only a secondary part of its diet.

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