Colours of Wildlife: African Pygmy Kingfisher
Created | Updated Apr 30, 2017
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
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I have a real little cutie for you this time! It's an African Pygmy Kingfisher, Ispidina picta. It is sometimes placed in the genus Ceyx along with a group of mostly Asian kingfishers. This species is widespread in the moister parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It occurs around Polokwane but I've only seen it a few times – each time was however quite memorable! The very first time I saw it must be over twenty years ago by now .. I spotted it as a bright flash of colour over a sheltered river near the present-day Polokwane Bird Sanctuary; I managed to track it to where it perched on a branch well within the shelter of the foliage. I was awestruck at its delicate beauty! It is indeed like a living, flying gem. This species is only about 12.5 cm/5" in total length, bill and tail included, which is quite tiny.
King, but not-so-much Fisher
Like many of South Africa's kingfishers, this species is not appropriately named. It hardly ever fishes; it catches mainly insects, and occasionally vertebrates like tiny geckoes or snakes. It is associated with rivers, but mostly because the rivers support a lush growth of trees and shrubs in otherwise dry and rather barren regions, which describes much of the local land over here. Such lush riverine vegetation of course supports more insects.
These little kingfishers keep close to shelter and don't flaunt their beauty much. The only way in which they attract attention is by a brief, modest head-bob … perhaps intended to show other kingfishers that they are there, that it's their territory. They typically perch low down, close to the herb and shrub layer of the forest or woodland. They tend to perch close to a clearing, giving them a relatively good view of a small patch. They snatch their insect prey mainly off the ground. Their bright red bill is fairly broad and flat, to make it easy to catch these little critters. Very occasionally they do snatch prey off the surface of small rivers or ponds, but these are small frogs or aquatic insects, rather than fish.
Like other kingfishers (both the actually fishing and the many non-fishing kinds) the pygmies nest in holes – often excavating these in the earth of riverbanks, but also in the walls of Aardvark burrows, or in termite hills. The female lays up to six eggs, clutches being bigger in regions further away from the equator. Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed and care for the chicks.
Little Look-Alikes
What is very interesting here in South Africa, is that this kingfisher looks very similar to another species, the Malachite Kingfisher. The only clear visual difference is that the pygmy has a rufous eyebrow separating its eye from its deep-blue cap, and also a lilac patch on its cheeks. Yet, they're not particularly closely related. The malachite is a true fish-catching kingfisher, closely related to the African Half-collared Kingfisher, as well as the Eurasian and several Asian and Australian species. The African pygmy kingfisher has only a single close relative in Africa, the even smaller Dwarf Kingfisher; its other relatives occur in Madagascar and tropical Asia. Yet, the pygmy looks more like the malachite than it resembles its four Asian/Madagascan relatives! I don't think anyone has any idea why this is so. It can't be put down to convergent evolution, since the pygmy and malachite kingfishers have different habits and habitat preferences. All it does, is make bird-watching a tad more complicated! It also is a test of a bird-watcher's integrity: it is very tempting to put a briefly glimpsed bird down as the rare pygmy kingfisher, rather than the common malachite.
Modest Migrations
The pygmy kingfisher is an intra-African migrant. They don't cover nearly the sort of distance traversed by other migrants like cuckoos, bee-eaters, swallows or willow-warblers, some of which fly to South Africa all the way from places like northern Europe, Russia or China. The pygmy kingfishers only fly north to Central Africa, when winter arrives down here. A few might go as far as the southern Sudan; most of the ones north of the Equator only move a few degrees north or south to keep where it's warm. Some are largely resident in the equatorial belt and only move short distances, if at all.
Migration itself happens by night. The kingfishers tend to fly low over the ground, and rapidly. Because they are not actually nocturnally adapted like owls, they can't always see and avoid obstacles, and many of the fly into buildings, stunning or even killing themselves.
If it were up to me, all houses and buildings would have walls covered in mosses, lichens or small climbing plants, to make these collisions less lethal! But as it is, the kingfishers do seem to still be surviving fairly well. Though nowhere abundant, they are widespread in Africa and currently not threatened.
