Profile
In flight
Kingfishers
Pied Kingfisher
Ceryle rudis
- uncommon
- 40 km/h
- Least Concern
A kingfisher that hovers like a helicopter before diving. No perch needed. Delivers straight to the point.
- Population
- Global population size not quantified (described as widespread/numerous); regional counts exist only for small edge populations, e.g. Europe (Turkey) ~600-1,000 mature individuals / 300-500 pairs
- Habitat
- Clear freshwater and brackish waterbodies — rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal lagoons and reservoirs — with waterside perches (trees, reeds, posts) for hunting and earth banks nearby for nesting burrows
- Fun fact
- The Pied Kingfisher is one of the few kingfisher species that regularly hunts by hovering stationary over open water before plunge-diving for fish, and it can swallow prey in mid-flight without returning to a perch, letting it forage over stretches of water with no available perches.
- Range
- Very large range (extent of occurrence ~69,300,000 km²) across sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Valley and North Africa, and southern Asia from Turkey and the Middle East through the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia and China
- Diet
- Mainly fish, supplemented with aquatic insects (e.g. dragonfly larvae), crustaceans (crabs, crayfish), frogs and molluscs
- Size
- 0.25 m
- Lifespan
- 4 years
