biology

Hook-billed kingfisher

Hook-billed kingfisher is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hook-billed kingfisher rather than just read about it. In short: The hook-billed kingfisher (Melidora macrorrhina) is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Halcyoninae that is resident in the lowland forested areas of New Guinea and some of the nearby islands. It is the only member of the genus Melidora.

Key takeaways

Hook-billed kingfisher belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hook-billed kingfisher to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hook-billed kingfisher from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The hook-billed kingfisher (Melidora macrorrhina) is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Halcyoninae that is resident in the lowland forested areas of New Guinea and some of the nearby islands. It is the only member of the genus Melidora.

Taxonomy The first formal description of the hook-billed kingfisher was by the French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1827 under the binomial name Dacelo macrorrhina. The hook-billed kingfisher is now the only species placed within the genus Melidora which was introduced by Lesson in 1830. The name of the genus probably comes from the classical Greek mēlis for "yellow" and doru for "spear". The specific epithet macrorrhina is from the classical Greek makros for "long" and rhis for "nose". There are three subspecies:

M. m. waigiuensis Hartert, 1930 – Waigeo Island M. m. macrorrhina (Lesson, R, 1827) – west, central, and east New Guinea, Misool and Batanta Islands M. m. jobiensis Salvadori, 1880 – north New Guinea and Yapen Island

Description The hook-billed kingfisher is a large dumpy kingfisher with a length of 27 cm (11 in) and a weight of 85–110 g (3.0–3.9 oz). It has a long, white stripe below its eyes. Its underside is white. It has dull yellow feet. The call and song are mainly given at night. The most common call is a long whistle followed by a series of higher pitched short notes.

Behaviour

Breeding The hook-billed kingfisher excavates a nest chamber in an active arboreal termite nest 3–6 m (10–20 ft) above the ground. The clutch is two white eggs which hatch asynchronously. The male helps to incubate the eggs and brood the young.

Feeding It feeds on insects and frogs. It may dig into the soil searching for prey in a similar manner to the shovel-billed kookaburra.

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of the hook-billed kingfisher

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hook-billed kingfisher

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hook-billed kingfisher claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hook-billed kingfisher before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hook-billed kingfisher ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hook-billed kingfisher

In research: Hook-billed kingfisher appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hook-billed kingfisher in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hook-billed kingfisher is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1827, Coraciiformes stubs, Endemic birds of New Guinea, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hook-billed kingfisher outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hook-billed kingfisher in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hook-billed kingfisher means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hook-billed kingfisher out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hook-billed kingfisher in simple terms?

Why does Hook-billed kingfisher matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hook-billed kingfisher?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hook-billed kingfisher.