Society kingfisher

The Society kingfisher was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other kingfishers in the genus Alcedo and coined the binomial name Alcedo venerata.[2] Gmelin based his description on the "venerated kingsfisher" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had access to a specimen in the Leverian Museum which he erroneously believed had come from the "Friendly Islands", now Tonga in western Polynesia. Latham noted that the Polynesians revered and protected kingfishers.[3] The specimen would have been collected during either James Cook's second or third voyages to the Pacific Ocean.[4] Three water-colour drawings survive from Cook's voyages that are believed to depict the Society kingfisher: one by the naturalist Georg Forster painted on Cook's second voyage, one by William Wade Ellis painted on Cook's third voyage and one by the artist John Webber that was also painted on the third voyage.[4][5]

The Society kingfisher is now one of 30 species placed in the genus Todiramphus that was introduced in 1827 by René Lesson.[6][7] The word Todiramphus combines the genus name Todus with the Ancient Greek rhamphos meaning "bill". The specific epithet veneratus is Latin meaning "venerated".[8]

Two subspecies are recognised:[7]

• T. v. veneratus (Gmelin, JF, 1788) – Tahiti (Society Islands, east Polynesia)
• T. v. youngi Sharpe, 1892 – Moorea (20 km (12 mi) west of Tahiti, Society Islands, east Polynesia)

The Society kingfisher is around 21 cm (8.3 in) in overall length. The male of the nominate subspecies on Tahiti has dull olive upperparts with a brownish blue-green head and an aquamarine area behind the eye and on the ear coverts. The underparts are white with a variable broad rusty chest-band. The female on Tahiti is dusky brown above and has a prominent brown breast-band. The male of T. v. youngi on Moorea is pale brown above.[9]