Halcyon leucocephala
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kingfisher sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 640 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 26th most-seen of the 341 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and November–December
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Kingfisher in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against about 40% in February–April and September–October, the lowest months.
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.
3rd of 38
Of the 38 parks where we can rate Gray-headed Kingfisher sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 3rd at about 50%. The best odds are in Meru National Park (Kenya, about 70%) and Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-headed Kingfisher is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (640 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.
