The longevity record I decided to look into this week is the Malachite Kingfisher.
Although this record does not appear to be that impressive (6y 4m 23d) it is one of the oldest records we have for any kingfisher within the SAFRING database. The oldest of these belongs to the Woodland Kingfisher which just exceeds 8 years (ring number: E34901). After looking at kingfisher the recovery data there appears to be a high number (16 of 53 records) of collision related fatalities (windows, cars etc).
This specific Malachite Kingfisher was initially ringed by Dieter Oschadleus along Ottery Road, Springfield in the Western Cape on 25 September 2008, and retrapped 11 times in the same area over the last 7 years. This individual was initially ringed as an adult and only retrapped so it will be over the calculated age.
There is an older record recorded in Roberts 7, although after some effort I was unable to establish the ringing details. If you know the details of this older record please contact us at SAFRING.
The image within this article is accredited to Andrew Bullmore and comes from MyBirdPatch
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Taxonomy | Maximum Longevity |
Order: Coraciiformes Family: Alcedinidae Genus: Alcedo |
>7.5 years (Roberts 7) > 6.39 years (SAFRING) |
Species | Ring Number |
Alcedo cristata | E16147 |
Common name | Sample size |
Malachite Kingfisher | Ringed: 3246 Retrapped: 560 Recovered: 13 Total: 3819 |