the flight feathers. Their underparts are mostly white with green spots on the sides and flanks. Their tail is green with much white on the outer feathers that shows best in flight. Adult males have a white collar and a rufous breast. Adult females have a white collar, a buffy throat and breast, and a band of green speckles across the breast and upper belly. Juveniles resemble females but are duller and have small buff spots on their crown and wing coverts. One vocalization "resembles striking of two pebbles together, usually single or double". Another is "a harsh, buzzy scold, described variously as tsheersh, tseelp or zchrrk". Authors differ on their interpretations of whether the vocalizations are calls or songs, and if they are calls what their purpose is. The subspecies differ somewhat in the shade of the upperparts' green, the amount of white on the wings and tail, the amount and size of the flank markings, and the extent of the breast bands (complete or not). However, there is much individual variation within each subspecies and the differences are to some extent clinal, so the differences among the subspecies tend to be obscured. Distribution and habitat The subspecies of green kingfisher are distributed thus: C. a. hachisukai, from extreme southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and west central Texas in the USA into northwestern Mexico to Nayarit C. a. septentrionalis, from south central Texas and eastern Mexico south to northern Colombia and western Venezuela C. a. americana, South America east of the Andes from Venezuela east through the Guianas into northern and central Brazil and south to northeastern Bolivia; also Trinidad and Tobago C. a. mathewsii, from southern Brazil and southern Bolivia through Paraguay and Uruguay to central Argentina C. a. cabanisii, west of the Andes from Colombia through Ecuador to southernmost Peru; as a vagrant to Chile The green kingfisher inhabits wooded shorelines of streams and freshwater ponds and lakes. It favors still or slow-moving water, and though it requires low vegetation for hunting perches it generally prefers relatively open habitat rather than dense forest. It is a year-round resident throughout its range but roams a territory that may be as much as or more of river. Behavior Feeding The Amazon kingfisher usually hunts from a perch from which it dives into water for its prey. The perch is typically about high; it may be directly over water or