Kingfishers

Kingfishers are members of the taxonomy family Alcedinidae. There are 114 to120 member species living worldwide, especially in temperate and tropical regions. Science divides these into three subfamilies and 19 genera. Six species from this family live in the New World, but only the Belted Kingfisher ranges widely in North America. In far southwestern USA, the Ringed and Green Kingfisher’s territories will cross the southern border with Mexico in Arizona and Texas.

Here’s a bit of bird-trivia: Kingfishers have a unique arrangement of toes on their feet they share with bee-eaters and rollers called Syndactyly. As with most birds, three toes point forward and the fourth points to the rear. But in these birds, the middle and outer toes are partially fused.