FAMILY NAME: Halcyonidae SCIENTIFIC NAME: Todiramphus sanctus SUBSPECIES: none
SIZE: 20 to 24cm. (8" to 10") tip to tail.
LOCATION: Common and widespread. Found throughout Australias coastal regions. Not so common in Tasmania.
BREEDING: Breeding season is from Spring through Summer, laying from 3 to 6 eggs in a clutch, often 2 clutches per season. Both the male and female incubate and feed their young. Nest building is done by both, and is generally in a burrow in a bank or termite mound, or in a tree hollow.
GENERAL: They inhabit mangroves, eucalypt and melaleuca forests. During the winter months, they migrate to the north of their range, returning south to breed.
Their diet consists of reptiles, insects, crustaceans and sometimes fish.
A very colourful bird with, turquoise crown, buff lores, black eye stripe which continues around the nape, neck buff/white, blue flight feathers, rump and tail, the back is blue/green, the flanks and underwings are buff as is the underside.
References:
Michael Morecombe. Field Guide to Australian Birds, Complete Compact Edtion.
Ken Simpson - Nicholas Day. The Birds of Australia.
M. Blakers - S. J. J. F. Davies - P. N. Reilly. The Atlas of Australian Birds.
Birds in Backyards. www.birdsinbackyards.net
