Amazon Kingfisher

The Amazon kingfisher is about 30 cm (12 in) long. Males weigh 98 to 121 g (3.5 to 4.3 oz) and females 125 to 140 g (4.4 to 4.9 oz). It has the typical kingfisher shape, with a shaggy crest and long heavy bill. The bill is black with some pale yellow at the base of the mandible and its legs and feet are dark grey. Adult males have dark bronzy green upperparts divided by a white collar. They have a white chin and throat, a rich rufous breast with dark green sides, and a white belly with dark green streaks on the side. Adult females lack the rufous breast but the green of the sides extends across the breast almost to its middle. Juvenile males have a buffy rufous breast and both sexes have buff spots on the upperwing coverts and a large yellow patch on their bill.

The Amazon kingfisher is found from the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas south through Central America into Colombia and Venezuela and separately east of the Andes in every South American country except Chile, reaching as far south as central Argentina. It has been recorded as a vagrant to Aruba, Curaçao, Trinidad, and Texas. It inhabits large rivers, both slow- and fast-flowing, and the wooded shores of lakes and freshwater lagoons. It also occasionally occurs in brackish lagoons, mangroves, and tidal estuaries. It favors open landscapes rather than dense forest. In elevation it is mostly found below 1,200 m (3,900 ft) but occurs as high as 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in Venezuela.

The Amazon kingfisher usually hunts from a perch from which it dives into water for its prey. Occasionally it hovers before diving. Its diet is mostly fish, especially those of family Characidae, and crustaceans.