Megaceryle maxima
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert, other than the arid southwest. The first formal description of the giant kingfisher was by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1769 under the binomial name Alcedo maxima. The current genus Megaceryle was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848.
There are two subspecies: The giant kingfisher is 42–46 cm (16.5–18 in) long, with a large shaggy crest, a large black bill and fine white spots on black upperparts. The male has a chestnut breast band and otherwise white underparts with dark flank barring. The female has a white-spotted black breast band and a chestnut belly. The forest race M. m. gigantea is darker, less spotted above, and more barred below than the nominate... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 2 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Lilongwe | 🇲🇼 Malawi | |
| 5 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 8 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Giant Kingfisher sighting in Lilongwe on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 47th most-seen of the 52 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Giant Kingfisher in Lilongwe on a given day, against under 5% in June–July, September and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Lilongwe's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain a month against 310 mm in January. October has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Giant Kingfisher sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Giant Kingfisher sightings, Lilongwe ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Serrekunda (Gambia, about 30%), Abuja (Nigeria, about 10%) and Kampala (Uganda, about 10%).
Same order: Coraciiformes
The closest relatives of the Giant Kingfisher that you can see in Lilongwe (order Coraciiformes, Rollers, Kingfishers, and Allies) are Lilac-breasted Roller (about 10%) and European Bee-eater (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Giant Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Lilongwe (5 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.
