Halcyon leucocephala
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The grey-headed kingfisher (Halcyon leucocephala) is a species of bird in the kingfisher family, Alcedinidae. It is found across large parts of Africa and southern Arabia, from Mauritania through Senegal and the Gambia, east to Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia, and south all the way through to South Africa. It is also found in islands off the African coast such as the Cape Verde islands and Zanzibar.
The first formal description of the grey-headed kingfisher was by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in 1776. He coined the binomial name Alcedo leucocephala. The current genus Halcyon was introduced by the English naturalist and artist William Swainson in 1821. The name of the genus is from the classical Greek alkuōn, a mythical bird, generally associated with the kingfisher. The specific epithet leucocephala is from the classical Greek leukos meaning "white" and -kephalos for "-headed".
Five subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 4 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 6 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 7 | Monrovia | 🇱🇷 Liberia | |
| 8 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kingfisher sighting in Mombasa on a given day, based on 41 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 71st most-seen of the 146 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and April–May
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kingfisher in Mombasa on a given day, against about 10% in June–July, September and November–December, the lowest months. Those are among Mombasa's wettest months, with about 120 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in February.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-headed 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.
2nd of 10
Of the 10 cities where we can rate Gray-headed Kingfisher sightings, Mombasa ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania, about 30%).
Same genus: Halcyon
The closest relatives of the Gray-headed Kingfisher that you can see in Mombasa (genus Halcyon, Typical Woodland Kingfishers) are Brown-hooded Kingfisher (about 40%), Striped Kingfisher (about 30%) and Mangrove Kingfisher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-headed Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Mombasa (41 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.
