Kingfishers And Allies

This group gathers Birds subcategory members belonging to the order Coraciiformes, together with the closely related hornbills of the order Bucerotiformes, a set of birds many of which nest in cavities, whether excavated in a riverbank, a tree or, for the hornbills, a natural hollow the female seals herself inside during incubation. It spans the kingfishers, which despite the name are not all fish eaters, several forest species instead taking insects and small reptiles, the laughing kookaburra, itself a large, terrestrial kingfisher named for its loud, distinctive call, the bee-eaters, slender, often brilliantly colored birds that catch flying insects on the wing and remove a bee or wasp's sting before eating it, the hoopoe, recognized by its long, curved bill and fan-shaped crest, and the hornbills, large-billed fruit and insect eaters whose oversized bill is often topped by a bony casque.