The blue-green colour of the New Zealand kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) can show up as iridescent in the sunlight, but on a grey, overcast day like the one on which this photo was taken, its colours are muted. But they still stand out from the brown mud and debris of the estuary. Their genus name, Todiramphus, means “tody-bill”. Which makes no sense, I know, as I have no idea what a tody is (Caribbean birds similar to kingfishers, it turns out). Kingfishers are not musical birds; they call to each other to establish territories using a flat, repetitive ack-ack-ack-ack-ack call.
The New Zealand kingfisher
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