Red-backed Kingfisher Todiramphus pyrrhopygius Scientific name definitions

22 cm; male 45–70 g, female 41–62 g. Smallish kingfisher with distinctive streaky green crown, and rufous lower back and rump. Male white forehead and eyebrow, blackish mask extending across nape, white collar and underparts, dark green mantle, blue wings and tail  ; upper mandible blackish, lower mandible pale yellow to ivory from base, with darker tip; iris dark brown; legs and feet black. Female like male, but duller colours, and somewhat buffier wash on collar and flanks. Juvenile  like female, but more obvious rufous-buff on hindneck and flanks, dusky tips to neck and breast feathers.

Australia (except extreme SW & SE and Tasmania).

Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera), leaf insects (Phasmida), mantids (Mantodea), beetles (Cerambycidae, Dytiscidae, Scarabaeidae, Tenebrionidae), bugs (Nepidae, Notonectidae), ants (Formicidae), caterpillars, mole-crickets (Gryllotalpidae), also spiders, centipedes (Chilopoda), crustaceans, scorpions (Scorpiones); vertebrates, including fish, frogs and tadpoles, lizards (Agamidae, Scincidae, Gekkonidae), small snakes, and mice (Mus musculus). Also seen to attack nesting colony of Fairy Martins (Hirundo ariel) to take eggs and nestlings. Sits on fairly exposed perch, often overhead wires and fences; swoops to ground for prey, which is then carried back to perch . Also takes food from trunks of trees. Height of dives 3–40 m, horizontal distance 0–30 m, 47% of dives successful.

Single downward-inflected note , “pee-eee”, may be repeated every 3 seconds in long series; alarm either a whistle or a harsh chattering call; churring call by adults feeding young at nest.

Lays in Aug–Feb in N Australia, in Sept–Feb in S; breeds opportunistically in C Australia, continuously in abnormally wet years; normally double-brooded. Calling and displays of red rump accompany courtship feeding; migrants arriving at breeding areas call continually during day. Nest excavated by both of pair in vertical bank of a river, creek or dam, or in earth cliff, sandy bank or mine shaft, or in terrestrial or arboreal termitarium (particularly mound of magnetic termite Amitermis), or in earth among roots of uprooted tree; very occasionally in natural tree hollow, haystack or hole in a water pipeline; record of nesting in colony of White-backed Swallows (Cheramoeca leucosternus); nest entrance averages 2 m (0·8–10 m) from ground, or 1·8 m (0·2–20 m) from top of a bank 3·4 m (0·6–30 m) tall; burrow averages 28 cm long (up to 120 cm) and 6 cm in diameter, ending in nest-chamber 16 cm in diameter and 16 cm high; once, tunnel diameter reduced by a plug of dirt and saliva, possibly to conceal young from predators; nest-tunnels frequently reused. Clutch 2–6 eggs  , normally 4–5; both sexes incubate, period 20–23 days; both also feed young, which are probably not brooded; fledging period 26–30 days; second brood started while still feeding young from first. Nest failure from heavy rain entering burrow, also from goannas (Varanus), dingoes and foxes (Vulpes) digging into nest-chamber and eating contents and sometimes a parent as well.