Kingfishers
Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Coraciiformes Suborder: Alcedines
Families
Alcedinidae Halcyonidae Cerylidae

Kingfishers are small bright colouredbirds of the three families Alcedinidae (river kingfishers), Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers), and Cerylidae (water kingfishers)which lives near water . The Belted Kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon) is a large conspicuous and noisy Water kingfisher, the only member of that group commonly found in the northern Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful Near passerine Birds including the Kingfishers the Hoopoe, the Bee-eaters the The river kingfishers or Alcedinidae, are one of the three families of Bird in the Kingfisher group The tree kingfishers or wood kingfishers, family Halcyonidae, are the most numerous of the three families of Birds in the Kingfisher The water kingfishers or Cerylidae are one of the three families of Kingfishers and are also known as the cerylid kingfishers. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. The river kingfishers or Alcedinidae, are one of the three families of Bird in the Kingfisher group The tree kingfishers or wood kingfishers, family Halcyonidae, are the most numerous of the three families of Birds in the Kingfisher The water kingfishers or Cerylidae are one of the three families of Kingfishers and are also known as the cerylid kingfishers. There are about 90 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. They are found throughout the world.

The etymology of kingfisher is obscure; the term comes from king's fisher, but why that name was applied is not known^[1].

The taxonomy of the three families is complex and rather controversial. Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification The word comes from the Greek, taxis (meaning 'order' 'arrangement' and, nomos Although commonly assigned to the order Coraciiformes, from this level down confusion sets in. This article is about the taxonomic rank for the sequence of species in a taxonomic list see Taxonomic order In scientific classification used The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful Near passerine Birds including the Kingfishers the Hoopoe, the Bee-eaters the The kingfishers were traditionally treated as one family, Alcedinidae with three subfamilies, but following the 1990s revolution in bird taxonomy, the three former subfamilies are now usually elevated to familial level. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird Taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. That move was supported by chromosome and DNA-DNA hybridisation studies, but challenged on the grounds that all three groups are monophyletic with respect to the other Coraciiformes. A clade is a taxonomic group comprising a single Common ancestor and all the descendants of that ancestor The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful Near passerine Birds including the Kingfishers the Hoopoe, the Bee-eaters the This leads to them being grouped as the suborder Alcedines.

The tree kingfishers have been previously given the familial name Dacelonidae but Halcyonidae has priority. This group derives from a very ancient divergence from the ancestral stock.

Kingfishers live in both woodland and wetland habitats. Kingfishers that live near water hunt small fish by diving. Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two They also eat crayfish, frogs, and insects. Crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, or crodgers are freshwater Crustaceans resembling small Lobsters to which they are closely This article is about the block cipher algorithm For the ultrafast laser pulse measurement technique see Frequency-resolved optical gating. Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described Wood kingfishers eat reptiles. Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia are air-breathing Cold-blooded Vertebrates that have skin covered in scales as opposed to hair or feathers Kingfishers of all three families beat their prey to death, either by whipping it against a tree or by dropping it on a stone.

They are able to see well both in air and under water while swimming. Their eyes also have evolved an egg-shaped lens able to focus in the two different environments. The lens is a transparent biconvex structure in the Eye that along with the Cornea, helps to Refract Light to be focused

The Old World tropics and Australasia are the core area for this group. The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans Asians and Africans in the 15th century Australasia is a Region of Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring Islands in the Pacific Europe and North America north of Mexico are very poorly represented with only one common kingfisher (Common Kingfisher and Belted Kingfisher respectively), and a couple of uncommon or very local species each: (Ringed Kingfisher and Green Kingfisher in the southwest USA, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Kingfisher in SE Europe). The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The Common Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, also known as Eurasian Kingfisher or River Kingfisher, is a small Kingfisher with seven subspecies The Belted Kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon) is a large conspicuous and noisy Water kingfisher, the only member of that group commonly found in the northern The Ringed Kingfisher ( Megaceryle torquata) is a large conspicuous and noisy Kingfisher, commonly found along the lower Rio Grande River valley in southeasternmost The Green Kingfisher, Chloroceryle americana, is a resident breeding Bird which occurs from southern Texas in the USA south through The Pied Kingfisher ( Ceryle rudis) is a Kingfisher in the Near passerine bird family Cerylidae the Water kingfishers It is the only member The White-throated Kingfisher, Halcyon smyrnensis, also known as the White-breasted Kingfisher or Smyrna Kingfisher, is a Tree kingfisher

Even tropical South America has only five species plus wintering Belted Kingfisher. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of Birds Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability In comparison, the tiny African country of The Gambia has eight resident species in its 120 by 20-mile (32 km) area.

The six species occurring in the Americas are four closely related green kingfishers in the genus Chloroceryle and two large crested kingfishers in the genus Megaceryle, suggesting that the sparse representation in the western hemisphere evolved from just one or two original colonising species. The American green kingfishers are the Chloroceryle genus of Kingfishers which are native to tropical Central and South America Megaceryle is a genus of very large Kingfishers It comprises four species Giant Kingfisher, Megaceryle maxima eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008

The smallest species of kingfisher is the African Dwarf Kingfisher (Ispidina lecontei), which averages at 10. 4 g and 10 cm (4 inches). The largest overall is the Giant Kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima), at an average of 355 g (13. The Giant Kingfisher, Megaceryle maxima, is the largest Kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the 5 oz) and 45 cm (18 inches). However, the familiar Australian kingfisher known as the Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) may be the heaviest species, since large individuals exceeding 450 g (1 lb) are not rare. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The Laughing Kookaburra, Dacelo novaeguineae, is an Australian carnivorous bird in the Kingfisher family

References

External links

• ARKive - images and movies of the Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
• Kingfisher videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Kingfisher photos from Turkey
• A hunting European Kingfisher

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