Shining-blue kingfisher

Shining-blue kingfisher
Alcedo quadribrachys quadribrachys Ghana
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Alcedinidae
Subfamily:	Alcedininae
Genus:	Alcedo
Species:	A. quadribrachys
Binomial name
Alcedo quadribrachys Bonaparte, 1850

The shining-blue kingfisher (Alcedo quadribrachys) is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. It is found in Equatorial Africa.

The shining-blue kingfisher was described of by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850 and given its current binomial name Alcedo quadribrachys. ^{[2] [3]} The name Alcedo is the Latin word for a "kingfisher". The specific epithet quadribrachys is from the Latin quadri- for "four" and brachium meaning "arms" or in this case "toes". ^[4] The shining-blue kingfisher is one of seven species in the genus Alcedo and is most closely related to the half-collared kingfisher (Alcedo semitorquata). ^{[5] [6]}

There are two subspecies: ^[5]

• A. q. quadribrachys Bonaparte, 1850 – Senegal and Gambia to west central Nigeria
• A. q. guentheri Sharpe, 1892 – southern Nigeria to Kenya, northwest Zambia and north Angola

• 
  A. q. quadribrachys, Ghana
• 
  A. q. guentheri, Uganda

Subspecies A. q. quadribrachys (top) and A. q. guentheri (bottom); illustration by Keulemans, 1892

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Alcedo quadribrachys". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T22683037A92974387. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22683037A92974387.en . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 175.
3. Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1850). Conspectus Generum Avium (in Latin). Vol. 1. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 158.
4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  40, 328. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2017). "Rollers, ground rollers & kingfishers". World Bird List Version 7.3. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
6. Andersen, M.J.; McCullough, J.M.; Mauck III, W.M.; Smith, B.T.; Moyle, R.G. (2017). "A phylogeny of kingfishers reveals an Indomalayan origin and elevated rates of diversification on oceanic islands". Journal of Biogeography. 45 (2): 1–13. doi: 10.1111/jbi.13139 .