A kingfisher with a vivid red bill that lives in shady woodland, including woods beside streams.
It has orange-brown plumage, a pale blue patch on the lower back and short red legs.
GPS records of Ruddy Kingfishers breeding on Miyako Island traced a migration that rose to nearly 4,000 metres and reached two Philippine wintering sites: Polillo and Tablas islands. The route links a breeding island in Japan’s southwest with tropical islands across the sea. Its high mountain crossing appears in the recorded positions between the summer territory and the wintering sites.
The seasonal journey connects places used at different stages of the bird’s year across the western Pacific.The paper is the first GPS tracking account of post-breeding migration in Ruddy Kingfishers from Miyako Island. Its position records link post-breeding movement with the islands used in winter. The tracking links a Japanese breeding site directly with Philippine wintering sites.
Japan Ministry of the Environment Fifth Red List (birds) · No Ruddy Kingfisher entry found; Japanese category undetermined · Japan; Halcyon coromanda
The Ministry of the Environment’s 2026 Fifth Red List for birds contains 170 listed taxa and has no entry for Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda). This source therefore gives no Japanese category, individual assessment date, or population trend. A 2019 GPS-tracking paper records Philippine islands as wintering sites for birds breeding on Miyako Island.