Kingfishers are birds with long pointed, and sharp bills that live at beaches, rivers, small streams and ponds. There are also kingfishers that live in the mountains, deep in tropical rainforest. There are several interesting species of them that can be watched in Minahasa peninsula.
People think that kingfishers eat fish and small crab. Yes, but there are kingfishers that eat lizards and worms that they find in trees of rainforest.
Great-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis melanorhyncha) - The usual site for watching this bird is along the riverside that flows through mangrove forest. This kingfisher eats small fish.
 |
| Great-billed Kingfisher |
- Collared Kingfisher - This bird could be watched near water pond, rice field and even the dry farmland. The bird likes to sit alone on a dry branch of a tree.
 |
| Collared Kingfisher in a farmland at the outskirt of Sonder town |
- Green-backed Kingfisher (Actenoides monachus). This bird is usually seen in lowland rainforest of central to northern region of Sulawesi. In the southern region of Sulawesi island, his relative Black-headed Kingfisher can be found.
According to Wikipedia, Genus Actenoides was introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a French ornithologist in 1850. In Greek, actis or aktinos means beam or brightness; oidēs resembling. In Late Latin, the word monachus means monk (i.e. hooded); in Greek monachos monk > monos > solitary.
 |
| Green-backed Kingfisher |
Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda) lives in lowland forest to lower montane forest.
 |
| Ruddy Kingfisher |
Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher (Ceyx fallax) - a small bird that is quite difficult to find. Tangkoko Nature Reserve is the usual place which visitors go to find the bird. Actually, there are a lot of other places that visitors could go to find this bird. Some forest areas in Sonder of Minahasa are also the natural habitat of this endemic bird of Sulawesi.
 |
| Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher |
Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher
 |
| Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher |
Scaly-breasted Kingfisher (Actenoides princeps). This bird is uncommon. Its habitat is montane forest around 900 to 2100 meters above sea level. Most visitors go to Mount Mahawu to find this rainforest bird. Local guide and tour leader often use the call of the bird to attract the kingfisher to land in the nearby branches.
Because this practice have been done for years, the Scaly-breasted Kingfishers do not respond the calls anymore. So, I highly recommend that birdwatchers minimize the use of the artificial electronic calls. Let's leave the bird in peace. If we want to watch the birds, we just do walking tour inside the forest to find them.
 |
| Scaly-breasted Kingfisher |
No comments:
Post a Comment