The Manus dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx dispar''), is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family Alcedinidae that is endemic to the

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

is subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s. This species was formerly considered one of the 15 recognised subspecies of what was then known as the

variable dwarf kingfisher Variable dwarf kingfisher is a common name of a group of kingfishers in the genus, ''Ceyx (bird), Ceyx''. The variable dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx lepidus'' or ''Alcedo lepidus'') formerly included 15 subspecies. A molecular phylogenetic study publish ...

(''Ceyx lepidus'' or ''Alcedo lepidus''). A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2013 found that most of the insular subspecies had substantially diverged from one another. The variable dwarf kingfisher was therefore split and 12 of the subspecies, including the Manus dwarf kingfisher, were promoted to species status. At the same time the name of the variable dwarf kingfisher was changed to the

Moluccan dwarf kingfisher The Moluccan dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx lepidus''), formerly known as the variable dwarf kingfisher, is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. Taxonomy This species was previous named the variable dwarf kingfisher and had 15 recognised subs ...

References

Ceyx (bird) Birds described in 1914 Endemic birds of Papua New Guinea {{Coraciiformes-stub