Half-collared Kingfisher Alcedo semitorquata Scientific name definitions

18 cm; 35–40 g. Male black lores with small buff line above, bright cobalt-blue head banded with black, particularly rich blue on ear-coverts and hindneck, white neckstripe; mantle to rump bright cobalt-blue , tail dark blue, scapulars and wing bright blue with green tinge; chin and throat white, deep blue half-collar on side of breast, remaining underparts buffy; bill black; iris dark brown; legs and feet vermilion-red. Female like male, but some red at base of lower mandible. Juvenile duller, paler, grey mottling on breast, blackish legs and feet.

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Ethiopia and adjacent SE Sudan, and from Angola (Mossamedes) E to Tanzania and S to NE Namibia, E Botswana and NE & S South Africa; rare breeding records from Kenya.

Slow-flowing channels through reedbeds, woodland streams, fast-flowing perennial rivers and streams with well-wooded banks and emergent vegetation; also reedy lakeshores, wooded coastal lagoons and estuaries and seashore in the E Cape. Mainly in lowlands, but to 2200 m in Ethiopia .

Mainly resident, but some seasonal movements; Feb–Aug visitor to Begemdir and Simien Provinces of Ethiopia, and in South Africa more common in austral summer than in winter at Rondevlei and recorded from Kruger National Park only in wet summers. Records of a few vagrants in C Kenya.

Small fish (Alestes, Tilapia, Barbus) 3–7 cm long, also crabs, frogs, aquatic insects and larvae (Odonata). Perches low on a branch, stump or rock over water, and dives in steeply to catch prey; returns with fish held head forwards in bill to perch, where prey beaten and then swallowed. Occasionally hovers briefly to scan for prey, and recorded taking a butterfly in flight. On R Sabie, in South Africa, prefers to forage in shallow water, but foraging success was not correlated with water depth; most perches were below 2 m, and below 1·5 m it used rocks and reeds almost equally, but above 1·5 m mainly branches.

Not globally threatened. Widespread, in a range of habitats, and locally common. Requires at least 1 km of river territory when breeding. Has declined on the Natal coast of South Africa as a result of pollution, river siltation and habitat loss.