Todiramphus is a genus of
kingfishers in the subfamily
Halcyoninae that are endemic to the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and many islands in the South Pacific.
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by the French surgeon and naturalist
René Lesson in 1827.[2] The name is often spelt Todirhamphus (with rh), but Todiramphus is the original valid spelling. The name literally means "tody-bill";[3]tody is a relative of the kingfishers with a similar slender long bill, and the Greek rhamphos (ῥάµϕος) means "beak" or "bill".[4]
In 1945
James Peters in his Check-list of Birds of the World placed these species in an enlarged genus Halcyon.[5] Hilary Fry did the same in his 1992 monograph on kingfishers, but in 2001 Peter Woodall in the Handbook of the Birds of the World chose to place these Pacific flat-billed species in the resurrected genus Todiramphus.[6] This decision was vindicated by a molecular study published in 2006 that found that the enlarged Halcyon was not
monophyletic.[7]
The range of the genus extends from the Philippines in the west to
French Polynesia in the east, with the greatest diversity in
Australasia.
Description
Members of Todiramphus are medium-sized kingfishers with flattened beaks. They are typically blue or blue-green above with pale underparts. They often have a pale collar and stripe over the eye. Many species are commonly found well away from water and feed largely on terrestrial animals such as insects and lizards. The nest is built in a cavity, most often in a tree.
Pratt, H. Douglas; Bruner, Philip L.; Berrett, Delwyn G. (1987). A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific. Princeton University Press.
ISBN0-691-08402-5.