Tropical Bird

[Quero]

Wish I had a photo, but the bird flew away before I could get a shot. A verbal description is all I can offer:

size--about like a pigeon, but more slender

color--deep blue wings, reddish head and neck, white breast

outstanding feature--a very, very long beak--about 8 to 10 cm, slightly curved down

song--just a click-like chirp

This bird was in a low branch, looking around and chirping. It moved to another tree and did the same thing.

Does anybody know what bird this was?

[baabaabobo]

With a beak like that it sounds like a curlew... were you near water?

[Sir Burr]

It was probably a White-throated kingfisher. very common in Phuket. Likes to sit on low branches in a garden and snap up insects it sees in the grass.

Is this your bird? It has a white bib that you can't see very well in the photo.

Edited July 23, 2007 by Sir Burr

[Filer]

I checked my Thailand bird books and have a pic of the bird that Sir Burr suggests (it's the only one that comes close to matching your description). I'll PM you a copy of the pic, which shows the white front (cannot post on forum for copyright reasons).

[Quero]

With a beak like that it sounds like a curlew... were you near water?

Yeah. My house is about 240 m from the shore of Chalong Bay.

It does look like the Kingfisher that Burr and Flier have mentioned. The beak of my bird seemed longer, but it's possible I saw an older juvenile so that the beak was proportinately more pronounced. Maybe I should sit gazing at the birdlife in my garden more if these lovely creatures are common. (I get beautiful bugs too.) The frogs are a bit of a bother sometimes, though.

Thanks for the replies, forumers!