Todiramphus sanctus
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The sacred kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) is a medium-sized woodland kingfisher that occurs in mangroves, woodlands, forests and river valleys in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the western Pacific. The binomial name Halcyon sanctus was introduced by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827 who described a sacred kingfisher zoological specimen from New Holland, Australia. Vigors and Horsfield compare it with Alcedo sacra described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788. Gmelin in turn based his description on John Latham's "Sacred King's Fisher" published in 1782. Latham described several varieties, one of which was illustrated in Arthur Phillip's The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay published in 1789. The genus Halcyon was split and the sacred kingfisher was placed in the genus Todiramphus that had been erected by the French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1827. The generic name is derived from the genus Todus (Brisson, 1760), 'tody' (a West Indian insectivorous bird) and Ancient Greek rhamphos (ῥάμφος), 'bill'. The specific epithet is the Latin sanctus 'sacred'.
Five subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Alice Springs Desert Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Cleland Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Auckland Zoo | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 6 | Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Willowbank Wildlife Reserve | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 8 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Rockhampton Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Wagga Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Ōtorohanga Kiwi House | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 12 | Cairns Zoom and Wildlife Dome | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 13 | Caversham Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Sacred Kingfisher sighting in Kuching on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 57 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Sacred Kingfisher in Kuching on a given day, against under 5% in January–July and September–November, the lowest months. December has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sacred Kingfisher sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 10
Of the 10 cities where we can rate Sacred Kingfisher sightings, Kuching ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Auckland (New Zealand, about 60%), Brisbane (Australia, about 40%) and Makassar (Indonesia, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sacred Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Kuching (6 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
