The Sula dwarf kingfisher (''Ceyx wallacii''), 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

Sula Islands The Sula Islands are an archipelago of Indonesia. They consist of islands of the Taliabu Island Regency Taliabu Island Regency () is a regency in the North Maluku province of Indonesia, consisting primarily of the island of Taliabu, the most ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. 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. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of 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 ...

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

(''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 Sula 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.

References

Ceyx (bird) Birds described in 1868 {{Coraciiformes-stub