African Pygmy Kingfisher Ispidina picta Scientific name definitions

12 cm; male 11–16 g, female 9–15 g. Both sexes nominate race black crown with glossy blue tips; rufous eyebrow and hindneck with distinctive lilac wash on side of head; dark purple-blue mantle, back and rump; wing-coverts black and blue, flight-feathers mostly black, tail black; chin and throat white, remaining underparts rufous. Iris dark brown; bill , legs and feet red. Juvenile duller, blues paler, dusky barring on breast, black bill with yellowish tip. Race ferrugina darker than nominate; <em>natalensis</em> broader orange eyebrow, blue spot on side of neck.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Thick evergreen forest, riverine forest and swamp-forest , woodland, thickets and trees in dry thornveld and grassland, plantations, arable and pasture land, and large gardens. In Angola and E Africa, resident race ferrugineus is found in forest while migratory natalensis is more often found in Brachystegia woodland.

S populations present in South Africa and Zimbabwe from Oct to Apr/May, in Zambia Aug–May, and in Katanga, Zaire, Sept–May; after breeding, migrate N to Rwanda (Mar–Aug), NE Zaire (Apr–Aug), Uganda and Talanga, in S Sudan (Jun–Jul); some may overwinter in coastal Mozambique, South Africa and scattered localities in Zimbabwe. In S Malawi present all year, although summer and winter populations differ. N breeding populations are migratory N of 12–13° N, where present May–Nov; S of 9° N resident and partial migrant, some moving S to Zaire and Burundi, where present Sept–Mar.

Insects , including grasshoppers (Orthoptera), moths and caterpillars, flies (Diptera), beetles (Coleoptera); also spiders, small millipedes (Diplopoda), pill bugs (Oniscoidea); also aquatic invertebrates, and small frogs (Hyla) and lizards (Gekkonidae). Sits on a low perch 1 m from ground, scanning for prey, with occasional head-bobbing or tail-flicking; takes prey in flight, from the ground or from the surface of water, and returns to perch, where prey beaten on the branch before being swallowed head first. Sometimes follows columns of driver ants to catch fleeing insects.

Thin, high-pitched “seek” or “tseet tseet”, often in flight; also prolonged high twittering song, “chewtichíchew chewtichéétew skitise-see tseu-tsieeu-chewtitseu tsip tseu tseu tseu...”.

Lays in Sept–Nov in Mauritania and Mali, and in Mar–Oct in S parts of W Africa; in Jan, Mar–Jun and Oct–Nov in E Africa; in Jan–Mar and Aug–Oct in Zaire and Angola; in Oct–Dec, occasionally to Mar, in S Africa; sometimes several broods raised in a season. Solitary or semi-colonial; more than 20 nests have been found in a 500-m length of bank in N Nigeria. Nest-tunnel 30–60 cm long, dug by the pair into streambank, erosion gulley, ground termitarium or the side of aardvark (Orycteropus afer) burrow; one nest was in a bank 1 m above a stream, with tunnel 40 cm long and ending in nest-chamber 13 cm × 10 cm. Clutch 3–6 eggs (mean 3·8), larger clutches found away from equator; both sexes incubate and both feed the young; in captivity, incubation period was 18 days, young were fed 8 times per hour, 2 young fledged after 18 days and were independent 5 days later, when the pair laid a second clutch.

Not globally threatened. Has a wide distribution, and found in a range of habitats. Many are killed in Zimbabwe and South Africa by hitting buildings while migrating at night; more than 20 were killed on one night in Durban. This species has bred successfully in captivity.