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Sacred Kingfisher

Todiramphus sanctus

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

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: 93 annotations; 5 nights; recorded in January, March, April, September, October; most recent detection 05 Apr 2026.

Project clips

Typical call, this one has seven notes Featured

Typical call, this one has seven notes

Carindale (-27.52, 153.11), 01 Oct 2021, 22:17:18, Annotation 516, Annotator: Richard Fuller, Automated light denoise applied

Longer sequence of nine notes.

Longer sequence of nine notes.

Carindale (-27.52, 153.11), 01 Oct 2021, 23:34:28, Annotation 550, Annotator: Richard Fuller, Automated light denoise applied

Four-note variant, rather high pitched, somewhat unusual. Is it possible this is something else?

Four-note variant, rather high pitched, somewhat unusual. Is it possible this is something else?

Carindale (-27.52, 153.11), 01 Oct 2021, 23:55:06, Annotation 597, Annotator: Richard Fuller, Automated light denoise applied