Megaceryle maxima
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 168th most-seen of the 283 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Giant Kingfisher in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in June and October, the lowest months.
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.
16th of 38
Of the 38 parks where we can rate Giant Kingfisher sightings, uMkhuze Game Reserve ranks 16th at about 10%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 50%), Kafue National Park (Zambia, about 40%) and Lower Zambezi National Park (Zambia, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Alcedinidae
The closest relatives of the Giant Kingfisher that you can see in uMkhuze Game Reserve (family Alcedinidae, Kingfishers) are Brown-hooded Kingfisher (about 50%), Pied Kingfisher (about 40%) and Striped Kingfisher (about 30%), 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 uMkhuze Game Reserve (49 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.
