Species profile
About the giant kingfisher
The giant kingfisher is nearly the size of a crow, dark slate above with heavy white spotting, a shaggy crest and a massive black dagger of a bill. The male wears a chestnut breast, the female a chestnut belly — one of the neatest sex distinctions among African birds.
It hunts crabs as much as fish, striking them against a branch before swallowing, and it favours shaded, wooded water. The streams running down into Lake Tanganyika at Mahale, the Rufiji's tributaries and the Manyara forest streams are all good places for it.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Perches on a shaded branch over water and dives steeply. Hammers crabs against the perch to break the shell before swallowing.
Social life
Territorial pairs holding a stretch of river; both birds excavate a long nesting tunnel in a vertical earth bank.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
The largest kingfisher in Africa, and a loud harsh "kahk-kahk-kahk" flight call that carries far along a river.
