Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
About the Common Kingfisher
The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter. This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.
A real field recording of the Common Kingfisher. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
3 recordings on this page · licensed Public Domain / CC0 ×2 · CC BY ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 1,142 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Blue-banded KingfisherAlcedo euryzonaprofile
- Blue-eared KingfisherAlcedo menintingprofile
- Blyth's KingfisherAlcedo herculesprofile
- Cerulean KingfisherAlcedo coerulescensrecording
- Half-collared KingfisherAlcedo semitorquataprofile
- Shining-blue KingfisherAlcedo quadribrachysrecording
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.