Half-collared Kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata)
About the Half-collared Kingfisher
The half-collared kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata) is a kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae that is found in southern and eastern Africa. It feeds almost exclusively on fish and frequents streams, rivers and larger bodies of water with dense shoreline vegetation. The half-collared kingfisher was described by the English ornithologist William Swainson in 1823 and given its current binomial name Alcedo semitorquata. The word Alcedo is the Latin for a "kingfisher". The specific epithet semitorquata is from the Latin semi- for "half" or "small" and torquatus for "collared". The half-collared kingfisher is one of eight species in the genus Alcedo and is most closely related to the shining-blue kingfisher (Alcedo quadribrachys).
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 17 recordings for this species: 2 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Cerulean KingfisherAlcedo coerulescensrecording
- Common KingfisherAlcedo atthisrecording
- Shining-blue KingfisherAlcedo quadribrachysrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.