Melidora macrorrhina

General description: 

Large, dumpy looking kingfisher, black eyestripe and black band from chin joining at rear to form broad collar, bordered white below. Male of nominate race has broad blue or turquoise fringes to black crown feathers, upper-parts and wing coverts brown with buff tips, under-parts whitish, large bill with black upper mandible, horn coloured lower mandible, distinct hooked tip, iris very dark brown, legs and feet greenish-grey. Female yellowish-green fringes to foreahead and crown, buffy underparts. Juvenile darker cap, under-parts rufous-buff to yellowish-buff, noticeable dusky margins to throat and breast feathers.

Conservation status: 

Not Threatened.

Diagnostic description: 

Large, dumpy looking kingfisher, black eyestripe and black band from chin joining at rear to form broad collar, bordered white below. Male of nominate race has broad blue or turquoise fringes to black crown feathers, upper-parts and wing coverts brown with buff tips, under-parts whitish, large bill with black upper mandible, horn coloured lower mandible, distinct hooked tip, iris very dark brown, legs and feet greenish-grey. Female yellowish-green fringes to foreahead and crown, buffy underparts. Juvenile darker cap, under-parts rufous-buff to yellowish-buff, noticeable dusky margins to throat and breast feathers.

Behaviour: 

VOICE: Calls mainly at dusk and dawn, but throughout night when moonlit, also by day when breeding, singli liquid whistle, sometimes 2 or 3, followed by 1-4 short higher-pitched motes, “teuw-tu-tu, lasting 1 seconds, also 2 whistled notes, second shorter and higher, less frequently, irregular series of 3-5 plaintive notes, falling and rising 2-5 seconds, repeated chatter in alarm and aggression.

Size: 

27 cm, male 90-110 g, female 85-110 g

Phylogeny: 

Taxonomy:

    Dacelo macrorrhinus Lesson, 1827, Manokwari, New Guinea. Although placed in monospecific genus, shows some similarities to Tanysiptera and also to Clytoceyx and Dacelo. Three subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Distribution: 

Subspecies and Distribution:

    * waigiuensis Hartert, 1930 - Waigeo (W Papuan Is). * macrorrhina (Lesson, 1827) - Batanta, Salawati and Misool (W Papuan Is), and E across S & E New Guinea. * jobiensis Salvadori, 1880 - Yapen I, in Geelvink Bay, and E through N New Guinea to Astrolabe Bay.
Habitat: 

Lower primary and secondary rainforest, gallery forest, scrub-forest, also partly cleared areas, isolated groups of trees, and older rubber and teak plantations, generally below 700 m, locally up to 1280 m.

Trophic strategy: 

Large insect, including stick-insect, also frogs. Feeding behaviour little known, bill often caked in mud.

Reproduction: 

Mainly nocturnal and crepuscular. Lay in middle to late dry season, in Jul-Oct. Nest in active termite nest 3-6 m above ground on side of a tree, in shady location. Clutch 2-3, hatching possibly asynchronous, male incubates and broods by day. Nestling reported to have egg tooth on both upper and lower mandibles.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith