Male has white stripe behind eye, glossy black cap and back, rump and UpT-C shiny azure-blue, tail dark blue, UnP below throat rich cinnamon-rufous, bill whitish or yellowish-horn, often with dark line on culmen, iris dark brown, legs and feet greyish. Female like male, but tail rich chestnut. Juvenile dusky edges to feather on hindneck and UnP, dusky bill.
Not Threatened.
Male has white stripe behind eye, glossy black cap and back, rump and UpT-C shiny azure-blue, tail dark blue, UnP below throat rich cinnamon-rufous, bill whitish or yellowish-horn, often with dark line on culmen, iris dark brown, legs and feet greyish. Female like male, but tail rich chestnut. Juvenile dusky edges to feather on hindneck and UnP, dusky bill.
VOICE: Common calls are loud, repeated “tok”, or “chock” a very rapid “tok-tok-tok” sounding like “trrrk” repeated every 2 seconds, a series of loud hoarse barks or laughts at one pitch and either slowor fast. Several birds calling together. Becoming laugh “kikikikiki-haw-haw-haw-haw-haw, other calls include 3-6 slow, high pitched shricks as”elew,elew,elew”.
28-31 cm, male 110-161 g, female 138-170 g
Taxonomy:
- Dacelo Gaudichaud Quoy and Gaimard, 1824, Waigeo. Possibly the ancestral form of the genus Dacelo. Has in past been placed with D. tyro in genus Sauromarptis. Monotypic. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Distribution:
- Lowlands of New Guinea, along with W Papuan Is (Gebe, Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati, Misool, Kolepom), all islands in Geelvink Bay, Aru Is, and Heath Is (Sariba) in Milne Bay.
Mainly in lower canopy of monsoon and riverine forest, but also in primary rainforest, floodplaned-forest, parkland, secondary growth, thick coastal palm scrub, mangroves and gardens, also uses isolated patches of trees and cleared lands, and teak or rain tree plantations.
Sedentary
Arthropods, including grasshoppers and locusts, stick-insect, beetles, larvae, earthworms and large spiders and crabs, also small vertebrates, such as frogs, lizards, birds and small mammals.
Most breeding activity in late dry and early wet-season, nest excavation reported in mid-Aug and Sept, but also in May-Jun. Eggs reported in early Oct, and nestling in Oct, Dec, Jan and early Feb. Clutch 2 eggs, No data on incubation period.