Corythornis
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corythornis is a genus of small African river kingfishers.
| Corythornis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Malachite kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Coraciiformes |
| Family: | Alcedinidae |
| Subfamily: | Alcedininae |
| Genus: | Corythornis Kaup, 1848 |
| Type species | |
| Alcedo nais Kaup, 1848 | |
| Species | |
|
see text | |
| Phylogeny |
| Cladogram based on Andersen et al. (2017)[1] |
A molecular phylogenetic study of the alcedinine kingfishers published in 2007 found that the genera as then defined did not form monophyletic groups. The species were subsequently rearranged into four genera, with four species in the resurrected genus Corythornis.[2] The genus had been introduced by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848.[3] The type species is the Príncipe kingfisher (Alcedo cristatus nais).[4] Corythornis is the sister group to the genus Ispidina containing two small African kingfishers.[1]
Species
The genus contains the following four species:[5]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madagascar pygmy kingfisher
|
Corythornis madagascariensis (Linnaeus, 1766) Two subspecies
|
Madagascar | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
| White-bellied kingfisher
|
Corythornis leucogaster (Fraser, 1843) Three subspecies
|
Guinea to Mali and Ghana, Nigeria to north west Angola, Bioko Island, east Congo to south Uganda and northwest Zambia | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
| Malachite kingfisher
|
Corythornis cristatus (Pallas, 1764) Five subspecies
|
Sub-Saharan Africa except for the very arid parts of Somalia, Kenya, Namibia and Botswana. | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
| Malagasy kingfisher
|
Corythornis vintsioides (Eydoux & Gervais, 1836) Two subspecies
|
Madagascar, Mayotte and the Comoros. | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
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