All species › Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers
Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers | Coraciiformes
Scharrelaarachtigen | Coraciiformes
Colourful birds with a large head, short legs and a comparatively heavy bill; much of the colour comes not from pigment but from the structure of the feather, so that it shifts with the light. The foot is syndactyl: the third and fourth toes are fused over part of their length, so it serves as a clamp for perching and is of little use for walking. They hunt from a fixed lookout, waiting, darting out and returning, and beat larger prey dead against the perch before swallowing it. All of them breed in the dark, in a self-dug tunnel in a riverbank, an earth bank or the wall of a cenote, without nest material, on round white eggs, and the young hatch naked. In Mexico and Central America the order consists of two families. The kingfishers are represented by six species, from the small Green Kingfisher to the large Ringed Kingfisher, which catch mainly fish with their straight dagger bills. The motmots are a family of the American tropics, with finely serrated bill edges and, in most species, two long central tail feathers with a bare stretch of shaft and a racket-shaped tip, which are swung from side to side like a pendulum.
Families in this order
- Motmots | Momotidae10 speciesA small family of tropical America that reaches its greatest diversity in Mexico and Central America: this guide includes ten species in six genera, from dry deciduous forest and scrub to humid lowland and montane forest. Motmots are related to kingfishers and bee-eaters, with a large head, short legs with partly fused toes and a stout, slightly curved bill with finely serrated edges. The plumage is green and cinnamon with blue or turquoise on the head and wings, often with a black breast spot. In most species the two long central tail feathers end in a racket: the barbs just above it are weakly attached and fall away through preening and wear, leaving a bare stretch of shaft. When disturbed the bird swings its tail from side to side like a pendulum, apparently signalling to predators that they have been seen. Motmots sit still in the shade for long periods and then sally out for large insects, spiders, small lizards and frogs, and they also eat fruit. The voice is a deep, hollow hoot, often doubled, given mostly at dawn and dusk. The nest is at the end of a self-dug tunnel in an earth bank or the side of a pit, with three or four white eggs.
- Kingfishers | Alcedinidae6 speciesCompactly built birds with a large head, a long straight dagger of a bill, a very short tail and small syndactyl feet that are hardly walked on. They fish from a branch over the water or from a hover: the bird drops in head first, seizes the fish crosswise, stuns it against the perch and swallows it head first, bringing bones and scales back up as pellets. The flight is fast, low and dead straight over the water, on whirring wings. The nest is an unlined chamber at the end of a tunnel in a steep earth bank; the round white eggs lie on the remains of pellets, and the young carry their growing feathers for a long time in horny sheaths.