About Halcyon senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
Halcyon senegalensis, commonly called the woodland kingfisher, is a medium-sized kingfisher that reaches 23 cm (9.1 in) in length. Adult individuals have bright blue coloring on the back, wing panel, and tail, with white coloring on the head, neck, and underparts, and black shoulders. Their large bill has a red upper mandible and a black lower mandible, and their legs and feet are dark grey. Some individuals may have greyish heads, which can cause confusion with mangrove kingfishers. This species can be distinguished from mangrove kingfishers by several features: Halcyon senegalensis has dark lores that form a dark stripe running through the eye, while the stripe does not extend through the eye in mangrove kingfishers; in Halcyon senegalensis, the underwing, primaries, and secondaries are black with white underwing coverts, while mangrove kingfishers have a black carpal patch on their white underwing coverts; the inner webs at the base of Halcyon senegalensis’s flight feathers are white, creating an indistinct white wingbar, while white color is completely absent from the wings of mangrove kingfishers; and Halcyon senegalensis has a white breast, while the breast of a mangrove kingfisher tends to be much greyer. The sexes of Halcyon senegalensis are similar in appearance, but juveniles are duller than adults and have a brown bill. This is a noisy kingfisher; its call is a loud trill that sounds like a nail run down the teeth of a comb. The flight of the woodland kingfisher is rapid and direct. The woodland kingfisher is widely distributed across tropical Africa south of the Sahara, extending northward from Pretoria. Populations living within 8° of the equator are essentially resident, while northern and southern populations are migratory, moving into the equatorial zone during the dry season. It is a common species that occupies a variety of wooded habitats that include trees, especially Acacias, and it can also be found around human habitation. Despite being classified as a kingfisher, it prefers drier habitats in traditional woodland and can live far from water. It is often solitary, but may also occur in small groups.
