Megaceryle maxima
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Giant Kingfisher sighting in Pretoria on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 125th most-seen of the 177 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Giant Kingfisher in Pretoria on a given day, against under 5% in August to June, the lowest months. That is one of Pretoria's driest months, with almost no rain against 130 mm in December.
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.
6th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Giant Kingfisher sightings, Pretoria ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Serrekunda (Gambia, about 30%), Abuja (Nigeria, about 10%) and Kampala (Uganda, about 10%).
Same family: Alcedinidae
The closest relatives of the Giant Kingfisher that you can see in Pretoria (family Alcedinidae, Kingfishers) are Brown-hooded Kingfisher (about 10%) and Malachite Kingfisher (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 Pretoria (17 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.
