Alcedo
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alcedo is a genus of birds in the kingfisher subfamily Alcedininae. The genus was introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae.[2] The type species is the common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis).[3] Alcedo is the Latin for "kingfisher".[4]
| Alcedo | |
|---|---|
| |
| Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Coraciiformes |
| Family: | Alcedinidae |
| Subfamily: | Alcedininae |
| Genus: | Alcedo Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Type species | |
| Alcedo ispida Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
|
See text | |
| Phylogeny |
| Cladogram based on Andersen et al. (2017)[1] |
Species
The genus contains the following eight species:[5]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | Alcedo coerulescens | Cerulean kingfisher | Indonesia. |
| Alcedo euryzona | Javan blue-banded kingfisher | Java | |
 | Alcedo peninsulae | Malaysian blue-banded kingfisher | Myanmar, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, southwestern Thailand and Borneo |
.jpg) | Alcedo quadribrachys | Shining-blue kingfisher | Senegal and Gambia to west central Nigeria to Kenya, northwest Zambia and north Angola |
.jpg) | Alcedo meninting | Blue-eared kingfisher | Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia |
_Photograph_By_Shantanu_Kuveskar,_Mangaon,_Maharashtra,_India.jpg) | Alcedo atthis | Common kingfisher | across Eurasia and North Africa |
 | Alcedo semitorquata | Half-collared kingfisher | southern and eastern Africa. |
 | Alcedo hercules | Blyth's kingfisher | China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bhutan in northeastern India, and a vagrant in Bangladesh and eastern Nepal |
Unlike many kingfishers, all members of Alcedo are specialist fish-eaters. They all have some blue feathers on their upper-parts and most species have a black bill.[6] Except for the cerulean kingfisher they all have some rufous in their plumage. The female generally has more red on the lower mandible than the male.[7] The smallest species is the cerulean kingfisher which is around 13 cm (5.1 in) in length;[8] much the largest is Blyth's kingfisher with a length of 22 cm (8.7 in).[9]
