Moustached kingfisher

Moustached kingfisher
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Alcedinidae
Subfamily: Halcyoninae
Genus: Actenoides
Species:
A. bougainvillei
Binomial name
Actenoides bougainvillei
(Rothschild, 1904)
Subspecies[2]
  • A. b. bougainvillei - (Rothschild, 1904)
  • A. b. excelsus - (Mayr, 1941)

The moustached kingfisher (Actenoides bougainvillei), also called Bougainville moustached kingfisher, is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is endemic to Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. An estimated 250–1,000 mature individuals are left.

Their natural habitats are subtropical or tropical, moist, lowland forests and subtropical or tropical, moist, montane forests; they nest in tree holes. They are threatened by habitat loss and introduced predators.

The Guadalcanal moustached kingfisher was previously lumped together with A. bougainvillei, but is now regarded as a separate species. It was first described in 1904, and in the late 1930s, a dozen specimens were collected in southern Bougainville. In 1941, A. b. excelsus was described on the basis of a single specimen from Guadalcanal, and later in 1953, two more specimens were obtained.[3] In 2015, a male specimen was killed and collected by a team from the American Museum of Natural History headed by Christopher Filardi.[4]

  1. ^ BirdLife International. (2022). "Actenoides bougainvillei". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T22683519A217011753. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-2.RLTS.T22683519A217011753.en. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  2. ^ Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2020. IOC World Bird List (v10.2). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.10.2.
  3. ^ Fry, C. Hilary; Fry, Kathie (2010-06-30). Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408134573.
  4. ^ C.E. Filardi. "Why I collected a moustached kingsfisher". Audubon.org. Retrieved 26 October 2015.