Alcedinidae

thumb|The paradise kingfishers of New Guinea have unusually long tails for the group. thumb|right|The kookaburra has a call which sounds like laughter. thumb|Like many forest-living kingfishers, the yellow-billed kingfisher often nests in arboreal termite nests. thumb|The black-backed dwarf kingfisher is considered a bad omen by warriors of the Dusun tribe of Borneo. thumb|Forest kingfisher in [[Queensland ]]

Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution: most species live in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, but they can also be found in Europe and the Americas. They can be found in deep forests near calm ponds and small rivers. The family contains 118 species and is divided into three subfamilies and 19 genera. All kingfishers have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with only small differences between the sexes. Most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests.