The Pied Kingfisher is a common species of kingfisher found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. It can be found from Turkey to India and China.
The Pied Kingfisher is an excellent hunter, skilled at hovering over the water and diving down bill first directly below to catch a fish. It has learned to eat its prey in flight and can hunt in both salt and freshwater. This allows the bird to hunt over sea or other places without perches, something that other kingfishers cannot do.
The natural range of the Pied Kingfisher is very large; the species has a conservation status of Least Concern as of September 2014.
The Pied 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). The population trend is not known, but the population is not believed to be decreasing sufficiently rapidly to approach the thresholds 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 »
