Tuesday 21 May
In the News: First crane egg in the western UK in four centuries

What’s the World’s Favourite Species?
Find out here.| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Coraciiformes |
| Family | Alcedinidae |
| Genus | Halcyon (1) |
The grey-headed kingfisher is an insect-eating kingfisher with a silvery-grey head, nape and breast and a distinctive chestnut belly (3) (4) (5).The wing primaries are black, while the secondaries and the tail are cobalt-blue (3) (5). The straight, dagger shaped bill is bright orangey-red (3) (5) (6). Although the sexes are alike in appearance, immature birds tend to be duller and have a blackish bill and dark barring across the chest (3) (5).
Despite the name, the grey-headed kingfisher does not feed on fish, but instead thrives on a wide variety of insects, such as grasshoppers, cockroaches and beetles, and occasionally takes small vertebrates such as lizards (3) (8). Like other kingfishers, this species generally sits still on a perch, before diving steeply down to the ground in pursuit of prey (6) (8).
The nest, which is excavated by both sexes, consists of a tunnel up to a metre long, dug into a riverbank, gully or termite mound (2) (8). Egg-laying occurs between September and December, with three to four eggs incubated by both parent birds for around 20 days (8).
TopThe grey-headed kingfisher is common across much of sub-Saharan Africa (2) (7) (8). As a migratory species, it generally only occurs in southern Africa during the breeding season (8).
TopFound in broadleaved woodland and savanna habitats, particularly along rivers and streams (2) (3) (8).
TopClassified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1).
TopThe grey-headed kingfisher is widespread, common and not thought to be under significant threat (7) (8), but is probably affected by habitat loss and fragmentation in parts of its range.
TopThere are currently no known conservation measures in place for the grey-headed kingfisher. However, given its widespread distribution, it is likely to occur in numerous protected areas across its range (9).
TopTo find out more about the conservation of African birds see:
For more information on this and other bird species please see:
More »Related species
Image credit
© Martin B Withers / www.flpa-images.co.uk
FLPA - images of nature
Pages Green House
Wetheringsett
Stowmarket
Suffolk IP14 5QA
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1728 861 113
Fax: +44 (0) 1728 860 222
pictures@flpa-images.co.uk
http://www.flpa-images.co.uk
Link to this photo
Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.
Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.
Read more about
MyARKive
MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material 
Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.
Creative commons material
Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.
Any other use
Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.
Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.