Halcyon albiventris
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The brown-hooded kingfisher (Halcyon albiventris) is a species of bird in the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It has a brown head and blackish and turquoise wings. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa, living in woodland, scrubland, forest edges, and also suburban areas. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern.
This species was described as Alcedo albiventris by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1786. Subspecies hylophila and erlangeri have also been described, but they are not considered distinct enough. The brown-hooded kingfisher is about 22 cm (8.7 in) long. The head is brown, with blackish streaks. There is a broad buffy collar above the brownish-black mantle. The wing coverts are mostly brownish-black, and the secondary flight feathers are turquoise. The rump is azure-blue. The chin is white, the breast is tawny with some dark streaks, and the belly is buffy. The beak is red, tipped brown, the legs are carmine, and the eyes are dark brown. The female has dark... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 4 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 7 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-hooded Kingfisher sighting in Gorongosa National Park on a given day, based on 95 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 19th most-seen of the 250 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and September–October
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-hooded Kingfisher in Gorongosa National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June, the lowest month. Those are among Gorongosa National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 210 mm in January. March and December–January have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown-hooded 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.
11th of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Brown-hooded Kingfisher sightings, Gorongosa National Park ranks 11th at about 30%. The best odds are in uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 50%), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 50%) and Mana Pools National Park (Zimbabwe, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Halcyon
The closest relatives of the Brown-hooded Kingfisher that you can see in Gorongosa National Park (genus Halcyon, Typical Woodland Kingfishers) are Striped Kingfisher (about 30%), Woodland Kingfisher (about 10%) and Gray-headed Kingfisher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown-hooded Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Gorongosa National Park (95 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
