[This is my last kingfisher post from the Gambia. I’m going to give you a break from birds for a little while now, I think. That’s the plan, anyway!]
The Striped Kingfisher, Halcyon chelicuti, is a mere 17cm long. It is another woodland kingfisher.
It swoops down to the ground from around 3m high, to catch insects, with an 80% success rate.
The Malachite Kingfisher, Corythornis cristatus, is a proper kingfisher: it actually fishes, from perches around 2 feet above the water, and prefers shallow water only a few inches deep..
The tiniest of all, at 13cm, it is exquisitely plumaged, a tiny flash of iridescent blue in the mangrove roots:
Eyes on the Wild 
What b e a u t i f u l birds…’almost’ looks like a hummingbird. I’ve enjoyed all your Kingfisher posts…thank you!
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So why are tropical birds, African birds so damn colorful??
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Ah. It’s a skewed sample because I partly choose my topics for how photogenic the birds are! But I think there is another more interesting answer. Let me think about it.
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What an exquisite little creature, so bright and delicate. Wow.
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