The subfamily appears to have arisen in Indochina and Maritime Southeast Asia and then spread to many areas around the world.

Tree kingfishers are widespread through Asia and Australasia, but also appear in Africa and the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, using a range of habitats from tropical rainforest to open woodlands.

[6] Tree kingfishers are monogamous and territorial, although some species, including three kookaburras, have a cooperative breeding system involving young from earlier broods.

Egg laying is staggered at one-day intervals so that if food is short, only the older, larger nestlings get fed.

Most species are watch-and-wait hunters which dive onto prey from a perch, mainly taking slow-moving invertebrates or small vertebrates.

The shovel-billed kookaburra digs through leaf litter for worms and other prey, and the Vanuatu kingfisher feeds exclusively on insects and spiders.

As with the other kingfisher families, insectivorous species tend to have flattened, red bills to assist in the capture of insects.