Mangrove Kingfisher Halcyon senegaloides Scientific name definitions

22 cm; 57–66 g. Both sexes grey-brown crown, black lores , greyish ear-coverts and hindneck, blue upperparts and tail, black wings with blue bases of flight-feathers; underparts greyish-white with buff wash; bill red, sometimes with dusky tip to lower mandible; iris dark brown; legs and feet dark grey-brown. Distinguished from very similar H. senegalensis by all-red bill, black patch at carpal joint of wing, also lacks black mark behind eye shown by S race cyanoleuca of that species. Juvenile blues duller, breast and flanks more buffy with fine barring, bill dark brown.

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SC Somalia (middle to lower Shebelle Valley) S along coast, including offshore islands, to E South Africa (Great Kei R); generally within 20 km of coast, but 150 km inland on R Jubba (Somalia), and on R Zambezi to Mopeia (Mozambique). Inland records from Kruger National Park and elsewhere in South Africa not accepted, but recently an adult recorded repeatedly in E Zambia (1 Tittle, D. and Dowsett, R.J. (2006). Mangrove Kingfisher Halcyon senegaloides inland in eastern Zambia. Bull. Afr. Bird Club 13(2): 194–196. Close ).

Crabs and prawns, fish, lizards, and insects . Perches quietly in a tree, flying to ground or water when prey sighted. A more frequent and efficient fisher than H. senegalensis, and takes quite large fish.

Raucous “tchi, tchi, tcha, tcha-tch-ch-ch-ch”  lasting 6–7 seconds, accelerating into slightly descending trill; “cling-cling-cling-cling...” at nest.