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FIELD STUDY
Presumed courtship behaviour of the
Cerulean Kingfisher Alcedo coerulescens
IVAN MARTIN & ALEXANDER K. S. PUTERA
114 BirdingASIA 27 (2017): 114-115
On 5 Februar y 2017, at fish ponds in Wonorejo,
Surabaya East Coast, Surabaya City, East Java,
Indonesia (7.310°S 112.827°E), we obse rved a
display by two Cerulean Kingfishers Al c ed o
coerulescens which we pre su med was par t of
their courtship; as far as we know it has not been
previously recorded. This small (13 cm) blue-and-
white kingfisher is slightly smaller than Common
Kingfisher A. atthis; females are duller blue than
males, with a narrower and less well demarcated
breast band (Woodall 2017).
At 11h00 a ma le and a fem a le Cerule a n
Kingfisher (presumably a pair) were perched near
to each other on sticks protruding from a pond.
The male flew to the female and landed next to
her, with both birds calling loudly. The female
touched the male’s bill, whereupon he moved to
another stick close-by and, both facing the same
direction, they began to display, wit h periods of
mutual head-lowering last ing from a few seconds
to about two minutes. The cycle started with the
male holding his head and bill horizontal, and the
ALL IMAGES BY IVAN M ARTIN
Plates 1–3. The pair of displaying Cerulean Kingfisher Alcedo
coerule scens reac ting aggressively to intrusion by another
male, Wonorejo, Surabaya East Coast, Surabaya City, East Java,
Indonesia, 5 February 2017.
BirdingASIA 27 (2017) 115
Plates 4 –7. Sequences of images taken from video recording of displaying Cerulean Kingfishers, Wonorejo, Surabaya Cit y, 5
February 2017.
female with her head and bill pointed up at about
45 degrees; from this position both birds lowered
their heads and then raised them to the starting
position in one continuous movement. One bird—
usually, but not invariably, the male—led and the
other followed a fraction of a second later. The
male usually bowed more deeply than the female
and both birds called continuously with thin seep
notes. On four occasions the female turned to face
the male and opened her wings.
At one point, when a second male intruded,
they responded aggressively, chattering at him and
then, after driving him off (Plates 1–3), continued
their previous display, with the female now on a
different stick, facing the male (Plates 4–7).
We believe that this is the first record of
the courtship behaviour of Cerulean Kingfisher.
Although we have videos showing their ‘dance’ more
precisely, more information about this behaviour
is needed and we would be interested to hear
from anyone who has observed similar displays.
We have made three short video clips which are
available at: https://vimeo.com/222322881 (Clip
1), vime o.com/22232 2889 (Clip 2) an d vime o.
com/222322899 (Clip 3).
Reference
Woodall, P. F. (2017) Cerulean Kingfisher Alcedo coeru lescens. HBW Alive
(accessed from http://www.hbw.com/node/55794 on 19/05/2017).
Ivan MARTIN
Bronggalan 2c/no. 4A
Surabaya 60132, Indonesia
Email: ivanmartin73@yahoo.com
Alexander Kurniawan Sariyanto PUTERA
Peksia Himbio Unair, Jalan Mulyorejo Kampus C
Universitas Airlangga
Surabaya 60115, Indonesia
Email: alexanderksp@gmail.com