Bird Life Festival 2004, Solomon Part 2

Following the previous issue in this blog,  World Bird festival 2004 (Kingfisher) – Solomon Islands Part II  , detail of the depicted bird species on each stamps comprises of the Beach Kingfisher (Todiramphus saurophaga), the Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris),  the Ultramarine Kingfisher (Todiramphus leucopygius), the Moustached Kingfisher (Actenoides bougainvillei), the Little Kingfisher (Alcedo pusilla), and the Variable Dwarf Kingfisher (Ceyx lepidus), described in the next paragraphs.

The Beach Kingfisher (Todiramphus saurophaga) is a species of bird in the Alcedinidae family and found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.

The population trend appears to be stable and for these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

The Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the family Halcyonidae, known as  the tree kingfishers. 

The Collared Kingfisher is a very variable species with about 50 subspecies. It has 22 to 29 cm long and weighs 51 to 90 grams. It varies from blue to green above while the underparts can be white or buff. There is a white collar around the neck, giving the birds its name.

It is most commonly found in coastal areas, particularly in mangrove swamps. It also inhabits farmland, open woodland, grassland and gardens. Birds often perch conspicuously on wires, rocks or bare branches.

On the Pacific islands it is usually common in a variety of coastal and inland habitats with various subspecies present on the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, American Samoa, Palau and the Northern Marianas.

The Ultramarine Kingfisher (Todiramphus leucopygius) is a species of bird in the Alcedinidae family and found in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. 

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.The population trend appears to be stable and evaluated as Least Concern.

 

The Moustached Kingfisher (Actenoides bougainvillei) is a species of bird in the Alcedinidae family which has two subspecies: bougainvillei on Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and excelsa on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. 

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. This spectacular species is judged to be Vulnerable on the basis of a very small estimated population which is suspected to be declining, at least in part of its range. It is threatened by habitat loss.

The Little Kingfisher (Alcedo pusilla) is a species of bird in the Alcedinidae family and found in open forest, woodland, swamps and mangroves in Australia (northern Queensland and north Northern Territory), Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The Little Kingfisher is 11–13 centimetres long with a rich blue back and head and a snowy white breast. It has a heavy bill and has a short tail. Its size is about 11-12 cm and its wingspan is 20-66 cm.

 

The Little Kingfisher will make a small burrow on the bank of a river during the mating season and will lay 5-7 glossy white eggs at the end of the burrow.

 

The Variable  Kingfisher (Ceyx lepidus),  is a species of bird in the Alcedinidae family that is found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. 

Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion . For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. Video of this bird can see in this link:http://youtu.be/ugCVqf6JU4I