American Pygmy Kingfisher

Sighting
This beautiful American Pygmy Kingfisher was seen flying fast over the water in deep forest in the Caroni Swamp in Trinidad. It flew a little way up a side channel and the boatman reversed the boat slowly towards it which involved going in under tree branches. Remarkably, this tiny bird sat very still a few metres from the boat while a number of us with cameras tried to find a gap through the branches and leaves in order to take a photograph. Ten minutes later when we had taken our photographs, the boatman pulled away with the bird still sitting on the same branch completely unfazed by the activity around it.

Species
American Pygmy Kingfisher Chloroceryle aenea occurs in dense forests and mangrove swamps along small streams or rivers with heavily vegetated banks. They perch quietly on a low branch close to water before plunging in head first after small fish or tadpoles. They will also hawk for insects. They are not shy, but easily overlooked as they sit silently amongst riverside branches.

Status and Distribution
A species of least concern thought to be decreasing in numbers within its range of some fourteen million square kilometres. It is a resident breeding kingfisher which occurs in the American tropics from southern Mexico south through Central America to western Ecuador, and then around the northern Andes cordillera in the east to central Bolivia and central Brazil. The species occupies the entire Amazon basin and the Tocantins River drainage adjacent in Pará state Brazil. It also occurs on Trinidad where it is an uncommon resident most likely to be found in mangrove swamps.

References
BirdLife; Wikipedia; World Bird Names; Kenefick, M., Restall, R., and Hayes, F. (2015) Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 174

Photograph
Taken in dark forest at 1/125th of a second, f5.6 and ISO 1250