Todiramphus Sanctus
Description
The Sacred Kingfisher is 190 to 230 mm in length. Its head, mantle and shoulders are dusky turquoise. The wings are a rich turquoise with some black on the flight feathers. The chin and throat are cream on white grading to ochre. The feet are dark grey-brown to black. Females are similar, but duller in colour than males.
Distribution
Sacred kingfishers are widespread in both open eucalypt forest, open woodland, paperbark forest, mangroves and wooded rivers throughout coastal abd sub-coastal Australia. Kingfishers migrate in autumn to winter to islands north of Australia, returning from late August to October to breed.
Habits & Habitat
The sacred kingfisher is usually solitary, pairing only to breed. Both sexes excavate the nesting burrow one to two metres above the ground in arboreal termite mounds, hollow limbs, and sometimes earth banks or even fence posts. Both parents incubate 3 to 6 eggs in turn, rear the young and defend the nest with tenacity. Their diet consists mainly of small reptiles, crickets, grass hoppers, beetles and larvae. When the birds are near water, they eat fish and both fresh and saltwater crustaceans. A kingfisher will sit motionless on a branch or wire watching intently for prey, then plunge down, grasping the prey in its bill before returning to the perch to swallow it.
Links and References
Reader's Digest (1986), "Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds"