Hook-billed kingfisher
The hook-billed kingfisher is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Halcyoninae that is resident in the lowland forested areas of New Guinea and some of the nearby islands. It is the only member of the genus Melidora.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the hook-billed kingfisher was by the French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1827 under the binomial name Dacelo macrorrhina. The hook-billed kingfisher is now the only species placed within the genus Melidora which was introduced by Lesson in 1830. The name of the genus probably comes from the classical Greek mēlis for "yellow" and doru for "spear". The specific epithet macrorrhina is from the classical Greek makros for "long" and rhis for "nose".There are three subspecies:M. m. waigiuensis Hartert, 1930 – Waigeo IslandM. m. macrorrhina – west, central, and east New Guinea, Misool and Batanta IslandsM. m. jobiensis Salvadori, 1880 – north New Guinea and Yapen Island
Description
The hook-billed kingfisher is a large dumpy kingfisher with a length of and a weight of. It has a long, white stripe below its eyes. Its underside is white. It has dull yellow feet.The call and song are mainly given at night. The most common call is a long whistle followed by a series of higher pitched short notes.