The Azure Kingfisher is a small species of kingfisher found in parts of northern and eastern Australia, as well as Tasmania, New Guinea, and other nearby islands. This little cutie has striking plumage, with wings, back, and head in azure blue, contrasting buffy breast, and white and black highlights.
Azure Kingfishers feed on small fish and crustaceans, as well as insects and frogs. They typically hunt from a perched position above water. Azure Kingfishers are known to follow foraging Duck-billed Platypuses to hunt for prey disturbed by the movement of the unusual animal.
The natural range of the Azure Kingfisher is rather large, and the species has a conservation status of Least Concern as of September 2014.
The Azure Kingfisher is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
We have recently updated some of our Kingfishers and added several new ones bringing the total number of Kingfishers on Birdorable to ten! There are actually 90 different species of Kingfisher in the world, so we still have a way to go. Each of our birds... Read more »
This week, we’re celebrating the world’s kingfishers! There are about 90 species of kingfisher in the world. These darling birds are often colorful, and they can be found all around the world. Join us as we highlight kingfishers... Read more »
