The kingfisher family Alcedinidae belongs to the Coraciiformes order, as do the bee-eaters of family Meropidae, the motmots of family Momotidae, the rollers of families Brachypteraciidae and Coraciidae, and the todies of family Todidae.




Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found outside of the Americas. There are about 110 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. The typical kingfisher has three toes pointing forward and one to the rear, with the third and fourth toes partially fused together. The bill is usually longer and more compressed in species that hunt fish, and shorter and more broad in species that hunt prey off the ground. Most species have bright plumage with little differences between the sexes. There is also little difference in the length or weight of the sexes. Some species have males slightly larger than females, but other species have the females listed as  slightly larger than the males.

The kingfishers are separated into three subfamilies: River Kingfishers (Alcedinina), Tree Kingfishers (Halcyoninae), and Water Kingfishers (Cerylinae). This article is about the Water Kingfishers.


The water kingfishers are one of the three subfamilies of kingfishers. Of the nine kingfishers that belong to this family, one is found in Africa, two in Asia, and the other six in the Americas. All American kingfisher species are in this family. These are all fish-eating species, unlike many representatives of the other two subfamilies. In addition to fish, some also eat crustaceans, insects, tadpoles, and reptiles. They usually seize their prey by diving from a perch. Some will occasionally hover briefly while searching for prey and others can catch insects on the fly. Because these kingfishers favor food from water, they prefer habitats near water. All the water kingfisher will visit fresh water locations, a few will also frequent salt water.

As is true for all kingfishers, the water kingfishers have their nests in cavities. In this case, the cavities are almost always created by excavating nest-tunnels in earth bankings. They lossen the material with their bill and move the material to the rear via their forward facing toes, two of which are partially fused toes.  With the young living in a nest which is enclosed tunnel, it can get rather gross in those tight quarters. The parents are known to take a bath immediately after feeding the chicks!

All of the water kingfishers have a conservation status of Least Concern. One reason for their success is that they all have ranges that are geographically large. Another reason is that they are not fussy where they excavate their nest - some sort of banking will do. Contrast this to many of the tree kingfishers of subfamily Halcyoninae which excavate their nests in termite mounds.


Genus Ceryle - 1 species

Kingfisher,_Pied Ceryle rudis   Image by:  1, 4) Arno Meintjes  3) Andy_Li   3) Frans_Vandewalle - The Gambia
1, 2) Female   3) Male




Genus Chloroceryle
All the Chloroceryle kingfishers usually nest in a horizontal earth-banking tunnel and have green upperparts. The four species in this genus are found in tropical Americas and all have fish as their favorite food. They are widely different in size with the smallest the American pygmy kingfisher 13 cm long and the largest the Amazon kingfisher 30 cm long. The green kingfisher is 20 cm long and the green-and-rufous kingfisher is 24 cm long. Their ranges overlap, but because of their size differences they do not compete with each other for the same food supply.

Kingfisher,_Amazon   Chloroceryle amazona   Image by: 1) Carlos_Henrique  2) Nick Athanas - Columbia, Brazil  3) Andreas_Trepte
1, 2) Female   3) Male



Kingfisher,_America_Pygmy  Chloroceryle aenea  Image by: 1) Carol Foil - Belize  2) Nick Athanas - Costa Rica  3) Jerry Oldenettel - Belize  4) Francesco_Veronesi - Brazil
1, 2) Female  3, 4) Male



Kingfisher,_Green  Chloroceryle americana  Image by:   1, 4) Jerry Oldenettel  - Costa Rica  2) Nick Athanas   3) Cláudio Dias Timm - Brazil
1, 2) Female   3, 4) Male



Kingfisher,_Green-and-rufous  Chloroceryle inda  Image by: 1) Tom_Benson - Costa Rica  2) Becky_Matsubara - Costa Rica  3) Arthur Chapman - Bolivia  4) Nick Athanas - Brazil
1, 2) Female   3, 4) Male




Genus Megaceryle
All are fish eaters. They have a prominant head creast, grey or greyish-blue upperparts, and white or rufous underparts. The underparts pattern is always different for the two sexes. They are all relatively large, with the giant kingfisher challenging the laughing kookabuura of Australia for the title of the world's largest kingfisher.

Kingfisher,_Belted Megaceryle alcyon Image by:   1) Elaine R Wilson  - British Columbia  2) mike_baird - california   3, 4) Andy_Morffew
1, 2) Female  3, 4) Male



Kingfisher,_Crested  also Himalayan Pied kingfisher  Megaceryle lugubris  Image by: 1) Caesar Photography   2) LonelyShrimp  3) Tokumi - Japan
1,2) Female  3) Male



Kingfisher,_Giant  Megaceryle maxima  Image by: 1) Martin Heigan     2) Frans_Vandewalle  - The Gambia   3) Arno Meintjes  4) Charles_J_Sharp - Kenya
1, 2) Female  3, 4) Male



Kingfisher,_Ringed  Megaceryle torquata   Image by: 1) Jorge Cardenas - Chile  2)  Bernard_Dupont - Brazil   3) Dario Sanches - Brazil   4) Claudio Timm - Brazil
1, 2) female   3, 4) Male