Sacred Kingfisher STACCATO CALL Strongly supported
Putative nocturnal call type
The familiar kek-kek-kek call, classified as the STACCATO CALL in HANZAB. Series of 7-8 sharp kek notes, most energy concentrated at 3-3.5kHz
Behavioural context
This call is given in flight, as evidenced by recordings where an initial faint call is heard, followed by a much louder call as the bird overflies the microphone, and then a weaker call as it again becomes more distant.
Evidence for identification
Perfect match to spectrograms of this call, which is also given frequently in the daytime.
Confidence statement
Very high confidence, this is one of the characteristic sounds of nocmig in Australia.
Similar species / confusion risks
No obvious confusion species for this call.
Project detections: 171 annotations; 15 nights; recorded in January, March, April, August, September, October; most recent detection 08 Sep 2026.
Project clips
Typical call, this one has seven notes Featured
Longer sequence of nine notes.
Four-note variant, rather high pitched, somewhat unusual. Is it possible this is something else?
