Western and Central Africa: All forest area extending to S Uganda, NW Zambia, SW Mali, SW Senegal.
Open water in forest
Resident
The shining-blue kingfisher (Alcedo quadribrachys) is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is found in Equatorial Africa.
The shining-blue kingfisher was described of by the French ornithologist Charles Lucian Bonaparte in 1850 and given its current binomial name Alcedo quadribrachys.[2][3] The name Alcedo is the Latin word for a "kingfisher". The specific epithet quadribrachys is from the Latin quadri- for "four" and brachium meaning "arms" or in this case "toes".[4] The shining-blue kingfisher is one of seven species in the genus Alcedo and is most closely related to the half-collared kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata).[5][6]
There are two subspecies:[5]
The shining-blue kingfisher (Alcedo quadribrachys) is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is found in Equatorial Africa.
The shining-blue kingfisher was described of by the French ornithologist Charles Lucian Bonaparte in 1850 and given its current binomial name Alcedo quadribrachys. The name Alcedo is the Latin word for a "kingfisher". The specific epithet quadribrachys is from the Latin quadri- for "four" and brachium meaning "arms" or in this case "toes". The shining-blue kingfisher is one of seven species in the genus Alcedo and is most closely related to the half-collared kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata).
There are two subspecies:
A. q. quadribrachys Bonaparte, 1850 – Senegal and Gambia to west central Nigeria A. q. guentheri Sharpe, 1892 – southern Nigeria to Kenya, northwest Zambia and north Angola Subspecies A. q. quadribrachys (top) and A. q. guentheri (bottom); illustration by Keulemans, 1892
