Multi-Ethnic Bird Guide of the Subantarctic Forests of South America

III. WETLAND BIRDS, ASSOCIATED WITH RIPARIAN, COASTAL OR PRAIRIE HABITATS

ACUATICO S WETLAND BIRDS 93 WETLAND BIRDS, ASSOCIATED WITH RIPARIAN, COASTAL OR PRAIRIE HABITATS TS S S S S WETLAND BIRDS 94 ACUATICO S WETLAND BIRDS 95 CD 1 / Track 15 Ceryle torquata, formerly classified as Megaceryle (great = Gk. megas; kingfisher= Gk. ceryle) torquata, is the largest South American kingfisher, and it is the only one that reaches subpolar latitudes. Its distribution spans from Texas and Arizona in southern United States to Cape Horn in southern South America, where it receives the Yahgan name of chéketej. It is a conspicuously colored species with an elegant white collar and a blue crest, especially marked in the male. It possesses a long, strong beak that permits it to catch fish in rivers, lakes, channels and fjords of the extreme south. It is frequently observed perched on branches or rocks that overhang rivers or the shoreline. On these, the Ringed Kingfisher waits for the appearance of marine and freshwater fish, crustaceans and larvae that it hunts on the surface of the water or by plunging itself into it. When it notices danger, it sweeps back and forth in the air, emitting its strong, repetitive calls kekereke- kekereke- kekereke. It nests in holes in the sides of riverbanks and hills. When she was young, Yahgan Grandmother Cristina Calderón enjoyed watching the Ringed Kingfisher, or chéketej, coming in and out of their nests on cliffs along the Murray Channel on Hoste Island. Some old Yahgan stories related chéketej with another bird species that uses forests and waters, the Night Heron (Nyctiocorax nyctiocorax) or huajatanu. Both the Ringed Kingfisher and the night heron sleep and nest in trees, but fish in rivers or along shorelines. In ancestral times when chéketej and huajatanu were still humans, they were lovers. For a long time, whenever huajatanu left to fish in the canoe, chéketej helped him to catch great quantities of fish, until one day the huajatanu’s husband surprised the lovers and impaled them with his sírsa or sea urchin harpoon; it was then that both transformed themselves and flew away as birds. Grandmother Cristina was enchanted by the colors of the male and the female when they flew as a pair into the waters to capture fish. This “enchantment” is also captured by the Mapuche ornithological view of the Ringed Kingfisher or challwafeüñüm, which perceives this species as a “half tree-half water” fisher (challwafe) bird (üñüm). The challwafeüñüm attracts the fishes with its attractive, iridescent colors that it displays in its flights skimming over the water, plunging itself into the water from sunrise Chéketej Challwafe üñüm Martín pescador Ringed Kingfisher WETLAND BIRDS 96 CD 1/ Track 54 to sunset. Through the hypnosis that challwafeüñüm exercises over the fishes, an ecological flow from the beings of the water to the beings of the air is generated; the bird’s beauty, itself, forges the links in this food chain. Here, the insight of the traditional Mapuche ecological knowledge has essential similarities with contemporary ecological concepts of food webs, and the importance of the role played by birds such as the Ringed Kingfisher , which transport nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, contributing to the fertility of the land. In words of Mapuche poet, Lorenzo Aillapan: MAPUCHE STORY The kingfisher or challwafeüñüm attracts fish with its flashy colors, which it displays in its flights which skim the water. This hypnosis, that the kingfisher exercises over the fish to consume them, generates the ecological flow between the beings of the water and the beings of the air by means of the food chain. MAPUDUNGUN VERSION Fachi CHALLWAFEÜÑÜM feytañi allangechi fill wiriñ pichuñ wüñowitra mütrümkefi pu CHALLWAmülelu leufü meu üpüm ketu amuy wenteko. Fey tachi CHALLWAFEÜÑÜM mütrüm adtukey reke feyti illun challwa duamfel nümün epuñpüle üllutuwün fill kulliñ mülekelu tuwe ka kürüf meu fey ñi ipangentuaal. ACUATICO S WETLAND BIRDS 97 IDENTIFICATION 14-17” (36-44 cm) Deep blue or blue-grayish plumage with white markings, a shaggy crest and a broad white collar around the neck. The male stands out for its rufous chest and belly, and the female for its blue-grayish chest separated by a white band from its rufous belly. It has a strong, long, straight beak of dark gray color. HABITAT In Chile, the...