parent_taxon water kingfisher
Kingfishers are a group of small to medium - sized , brightly colored birds in the order ___MASK68___ . They have a cosmopolitan distribution , with most species found outside of the Americas . The group is treated either as a single family , the ___MASK87___ , or as a suborder Alcedines containing three families , ___MASK87___ ( river kingfishers ), Halcyonidae ( tree kingfishers ), and Cerylidae ( water kingfishers ). Roughly 90 species of kingfishers are described . All have large heads , long , sharp , pointed bills , short legs , and stubby tails . Most species have bright plumage with few differences between the sexes . Most species are tropical in distribution , and a slight majority are found only in forests . They consume a wide range of prey , as well as fish , usually caught by swooping down from a perch . While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish , most species live away from water and eat small invertebrates . Like other members of their order , they nest in cavities , usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in the ground . A quarter of all kingfishers nest in abandoned termite nests . A few species , principally insular forms , are threatened with extinction . In Britain , the word " kingfisher " normally refers to the common kingfisher . The river kingfishers or ___MASK72___ , are one of the three subfamilies of birds in the kingfisher group . The ___MASK87___ once included all kingfishers , before the widespread recognition of Halcyoninae ( tree kingfishers ) and Cerylinae ( water kingfishers ). The subfamily is widespread through Africa and east and south Asia as far as Australia , with one species , the common kingfisher (" Alcedo atthis ") also appearing in Europe and northern Asia . The origin of the family is thought to have been in Asia . The ___MASK68___ are a group of usually colorful birds including the kingfishers , the bee - eaters , the rollers , the motmots , and the todies . They generally have syndactyly , with three forward - pointing toes ( and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base ), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing . The water kingfishers or Cerylidae are one of the three families of kingfishers , and are also known as the cerylid kingfishers . All six American species are in this family . These are all specialist fish - eating species , unlike many representatives of the other two families , and it is likely that they are all descended from fish - eating kingfishers which founded populations in the New World . It was believed that the entire group evolved in the Americas , but this seems not to be true . The original ancestor possibly evolved in Africa -- at any rate in the Old World -- and the Chloroceryle species are the youngest ones . Not longer than 5 million years ago -- possibly as recently as 2 . 9 million years ago -- an Old World giant kingfisher became the ancestor of the belted and ringed kingfishers , and later , another species related to the pied kingfisher became the ancestor of the Chloroceryle green kingfishers after colonizing the Americas . While the evolutionary history of the water kingfishers in regard to their internal relationships is well resolved , it is not entirely clear whether they evolved from river kingfishers or tree kingfishers , and whether they immigrated across the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean ( though the former seems more likely ) . There are 9 water kingfisher species in three genera : The four large crested kingfishers , Megaceryle , have a wide distribution in Africa , Asia and America . The belted kingfisher , M . alcyon , is the only kingfisher that is widespread in North America , though M . torquata may be found as far north as Texas and Arizona . giant kingfisher ( Megaceryle maxima ) crested kingfisher ( Megaceryle lugubris ) belted kingfisher ( Megaceryle alcyon ) ringed kingfisher ( Megaceryle torquata ) The pied kingfisher ( Ceryle rudis ) , the only member of Ceryle , is widespread in the tropical regions of the Old World . The four American green kingfishers ( Chloroceryle ) of tropical America . Amazon kingfisher ( Chloroceryle amazona ) green kingfisher ( Chloroceryle americana ) green - and - rufous kingfisher ( Chloroceryle inda ) American pygmy kingfisher ( Chloroceryle aenea ) Plumage (" feather ") refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a ___MASK20___ and the pattern , colour , and arrangement of those feathers . The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies , and may vary with age classes . Within species there can be different colour morphs . The common kingfisher (" ___MASK12___ atthis ") also known as the Eurasian kingfisher , and river kingfisher , is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa . It is resident in much of its range , but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter . Birds ( Aves ), also known as avian dinosaurs , are a group of endothermic vertebrates , characterised by feathers , toothless beaked jaws , the laying of hard - shelled eggs , a high metabolic rate , a four - chambered heart , and a lightweight but strong skeleton . Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ___MASK66___ . They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species , at approximately ten thousand , with more than half of these being passerines , sometimes known as perching birds or , less accurately , as songbirds .