Crested Kingfisher

Crested Kingfisher (Megaceryle lugubris) is a very large black-and-white kingfisher with a shaggy crest, heavy bill and strongly spotted and barred plumage. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives beside fast rivers and mountain streams in southern and eastern Asia, watching from exposed rocks or branches before plunging for fish and excavating a tunnel in a riverbank. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).