American pygmy kingfisher
Male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Alcedinidae
Subfamily: Cerylinae
Genus: Chloroceryle
Species:
C. aenea
Binomial name
Chloroceryle aenea
(Pallas, 1764)
Synonyms
  • Alcedo aenea Pallas, 1764
  • Alcedo superciliosa Linnaeus, 1766

The American pygmy kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea) is a species of "water kingfisher" in subfamily Cerylinae of family Alcedinidae. It is found in the American tropics from southern Mexico south through Central America into every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay. It also occurs on Trinidad.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy and systematics

The first formal description of the American pygmy kingfisher was by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 under the binomial name Alcedo aenea.[5][6] The specific epithet aenea is from the Latin aeneus meaning "of a bronze colour".[7] The current genus Chloroceryle was erected by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848.[8]

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2006 found that the American pygmy kingfisher was a sister species to a clade containing the green-and-rufous kingfisher (C. inda) and the green kingfisher (C. americana).[9]

Two subspecies are currently recognized, the nominate C. a. aenea (Pallas, 1764) and C. a. stictoptera (Ridgway, 1884).[2]

At Reserva Natural Isla de Juan Venado, León Department, Nicaragua

Description

The American pygmy kingfisher is about 13 cm (5.1 in) long. Males weigh 10 to 16 g (0.35 to 0.56 oz) and females 12 to 16 g (0.42 to 0.56 oz). It has the typical kingfisher shape, with a shaggy crest and long heavy bill. The bill is black with some pale yellow at the base of the mandible and its legs and feet are pinkish to light gray. Males of the nominate subspecies have a dark glossy green head and upperparts with a golden wash separated by a narrow rufous collar. Their tail is a bluer green. They have black lores with a thin rufous line in front of the eye. Their chin, throat, and most of their underparts are rufous that is deeper on the breast and flanks. The center of their breast and their undertail coverts are white. Adult females are similar with the addition of a dark green band across their upper breast. Juveniles have paler underparts than adults and buffy spots on their wings; males have green-black streaks on their breast and females' breast band is often incomplete. Subspecies C. a. stictoptera has obvious lines of white spots on their secondaries and some white on the rump.[10] The two forms intergrade in central Costa Rica.[11]

Distribution and habitat

Suspecies C. a. stictoptera of American pygmy kingfisher is the more northerly of the two. It is found from the southern Mexican states of Puebla, Veracruz, Yucatán, and Chiapas south through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua to central Costa Rica. The nominate subspecies is found from central Costa Rica (where it overlaps stictoptera) through Panama into Colombia. From there it occurs west of the Andes to central Ecuador and east and south into Venezuela, the Guianas, and most of Amazonian Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. Its range extends slightly into Paraguay and Argentina and also includes Trinidad.[10]

The American pygmy kingfisher inhabits dense forest, where it occurs along small streams and rivers, beside pools, in swamps, and along tidal channels in mangroves. It shuns open landscapes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 2,600 m (8,500 ft).[10]

Behavior

Movement

The American pygmy kingfisher is assumed to be sedentary.[10]

Feeding

The American pygmy kingfisher hunts from a low perch from which it dives into water for its prey. Its diet includes small fish such as those of families Characidae and Cyprinodontidae, tadpoles and frogs, and large insects such as damselflies. It has been reported but not confirmed that it catches insects on the wing.[10][11]

Breeding

The American pygmy kingfisher's breeding season varies geographically, apparently from January in Mexico to as late as September in Trinidad. Both members of a pair excavate a burrow in a river bank, road cutting, gravel pit, arboreal termitarium, or the root ball of a fallen tree. it is typically 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) long and has a nest chamber at the end. The clutch size is three or four eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.[10]

Vocalization

The American pygmy kingfisher makes a "[w]eak, repeated 'tik' or 'dzit, tsweek' sometimes faster as a rattle or chatter". What is thought to be its song is "a series of musical chirps."[10]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the American pygmy kingfisher as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range. Its estimated population of at least a half million mature individuals is, however, believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International (2020). "American Pygmy-kingfisher Chloroceryle aenea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22683658A163591832. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22683658A163591832.en. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P., eds. (August 2022). "Rollers, ground rollers, kingfishers". IOC World Bird List. v 12.2. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  3. ↑ HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved 13 December 2022
  4. ↑ Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 24 July 2022
  5. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 170.
  6. ↑ Sherborn, C. Davies (1905). "The new species of birds in Vroeg's catalogue, 1764". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 47: 332–341 [333 No 54].
  7. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  8. ↑ Kaup, Johann Jakob (1848). "Die Familie der Eisvögel (Alcedidae)". Verhandlungen des Naturhistorischen Vereins für das Großherzogthum Hessen und Umgebung (in German). 2: 68. OCLC 183221382.
  9. ↑ Moyle, Robert G (2006). "A molecular phylogeny of kingfishers (Alcedinidae) with insights into early biogeographic history" (PDF). Auk. 123 (2): 487–499. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[487:AMPOKA]2.0.CO;2. hdl:1808/16596. S2CID 84824051.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Woodall, P. F. (2020). American Pygmy Kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ampkin1.01 retrieved December 13, 2022
  11. 1 2 Fry, C. Hilary; Fry, Kathie; Harris, Alan (1992). Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, and Rollers. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0-7136-8028-7.

Further reading

  • ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Boston: Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
  • Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.
  • Stiles, F. Gary; Skutch, Alexander F. (1990). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca, N.Y: Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9600-4.
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