---
title: "Afrikaanse reuzenijsvogel"
description: "Megaceryle maxima — Vogels. The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert, other than the arid southwest."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/giant-kingfisher
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Afrikaanse reuzenijsvogel

> Megaceryle maxima — Vogels. The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert, other than the arid southwest.

- Scientific name: *Megaceryle maxima*
- Category: `birds` (Vogels)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 3307
- Wikidata: [Q731910](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q731910)
- iNaturalist taxon: [73010](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/73010)

## Names

- en: Giant Kingfisher
- de: Riesenfischer
- es: Martín gigante africano
- fr: Martin-pêcheur géant
- nl: Afrikaanse reuzenijsvogel
- pt: Guarda-rios gigante
- pl: Rybaczek wielki

## Countries with the most observations

ZA (1768), KE (252), ZM (156), GM (115), TZ (113), BW (111), NA (107), GA (83), UG (76), ZW (68), MW (46), ET (39)

## Summary

The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert, other than the arid southwest.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_kingfisher

## Photo

![Afrikaanse reuzenijsvogel](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/giant-kingfisher/medium.jpg)

Photo: Dave Brown · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/346547889

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/giant-kingfisher?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).