Spotted this male Green Kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana), my first (!), from a friend’s window along the Jama River in Jama, Ecuador. When the sun briefly cracked through the gray sky, the dark green on its back was almost iridescent.

Size matters: Even from this bird’s eye view, it’s small (about 20-25cm in total length) with a relatively large bill, which lends the illusion of it being bigger than it actually is. According to Cornell’s Birds of the World, it is “somewhat larger than the American Pygmy Kingfisher, but only about two-thirds the size of the Belted Kingfisher and half the size of the Ringed Kingfisher”. It’s distributed widely throughout South America and Central America and north to Texas.

Below, a short video via the American Bird Conservancy:

Photo taken on 22 May 2013 near Jama, Ecuador. A version of this post was originally published on my blog, Piran Café, which is no longer being updated and moved here on 28 November 2020. Post last updated on 1 Aug 2025.