Appearance
The Numfor paradise kingfisher grows to a length of 34 to 38 cm including its long tail. The sexes look alike and have purplish-blue upper parts and similarly coloured underparts, with the lower back, rump, vent region and tail being white. The iris is brown, the bill red and the legs and feet greenish-brown. The juvenile has duller purple-blue plumage with rufous and buff underparts, a white rump and blackish tail. The voice is said to be similar to the call of the common cuckoo.Distribution
The Numfor paradise kingfisher is found only on Numfor, a 335 km2 island in the Biak Island group off the northwestern coast of Papua Province, Indonesia. Its typical habitat is forest, light woodland, agricultural land and coastal vegetation. It seems that these birds originated from a few founding "T. galatea" birds which arrived on the island and became isolated from the mainland birds. These then underwent a "genetic revolution". There were no particular biotic factors involved, but there was sufficient variation among the founding birds to encourage speciation, and the assortment of genes that the birds received was later undisturbed by further inflow of alien genes.Status
This bird is affected by the logging taking place on Numfor, with much of the forest being cleared and converted for agricultural use. The bird is described as common, but the extent to which it can adapt to secondary habitat is unclear, and it is suspected that its population is in slow decline, so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it to be a "near-threatened species".References:
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