We saw quite a few malachite kingfishers in the Mabamba Swamp off Lake Victoria near Entebbe, Uganda. They are so orange and turquoise (to bright blue) that they look fake, like a cartoon caricature of a real bird. How could anything real be so gaudily colored. They are so bright that it was difficult to get a normal looking photo, I guess because the real-thing does not look normal. As we drove along in our wood boat these woodpeckers stood out from great distances.
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| Look at the colors on the top of the head. It looks like the colors you would get shining an ultra-violet light at night. By contrast, the wings are a very washed-out blue with black smudges. The beak is very orange and the lower face is more of a brownish red. |
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| More crazy shine on the head. |
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| One of my granddaughter's photos. |
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| An illustration of ssp. cristatus, the nominate subspecies, from Birds of the World. |
It is turquoise, black and blue above and orange below, and has a large reddish-orange bill and legs.
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| Range from Birds of the World. |
It is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa except in arid areas of Namibia, Botswana, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is also found on the islands of Sao Tome and Principe in the Gulf of Guinea.
They are like a cross between the regular kingfishers and the bejeweled hummingbirds we saw in Colombia. Crazy birds!
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