Kingfisher Bird - Halcyon Bird of Legend
The kingfisher Alcedo atthis is one of our most brilliantly coloured birds, but its small size and rapid flight can make it difficult to spot. However, seldom is the sight of a kingfisher forgotten.
In-flight, the kingfisher looks like a flash of bright blue light as it skims fast and low over the water. It is one of Britain's most beautiful birds, with upper parts of an iridescent cobalt blue—or emerald green depending on the angle at which the light catches them-and a very noticeable paler blue streak stretching from nape to tail. The underparts and cheeks are a warm chestnut colour, which is most apparent when the bird is perching, and there's a patch of white on the throat and sides of the neck. And as if all this colour were not enough for one bird, the legs are a bright sealing wax red. Juveniles generally have duller plumage, shorter bills with a white tip and dark legs.
Above: The kingfisher's usual method of catching prey is to perch on a convenient branch or tree stump until it sights a small fish. Then, it flies up and hovers directly above the spot where the prey is hiding before diving straight down into the water to catch it with its open beak. The kingfisher is fortunate in being seldom preyed on by other birds who avoid it because of the unpleasant taste of its flesh.
Kingfishers prefer to inhabit slow-moving, shallow rivers or streams which are clean enough to support abundant small fish. Fast-moving streams and polluted waters have few fish and hence do not contain kingfishers.
A Bird of Greek Myth
It would be surprising if such a colourful bird had escaped mention in myth and legend; the Greeks believed that kingfishers bred in a floating nest at sea at the time of the winter solstice, calming high winds and stormy waves. Today 'halcyon' has come to mean any calm, peaceful and happy time.
Another legend is that 'Halcyone' was a faithful lover. She was the daughter of the God of the Winds and married 'Ceyx', the Day Star's son. He drowned at sea, but the gods pitied the couple and so turned them into these birds. The expression 'Halcyon Days' stems from this, reflecting days filled with pleasant and fond memories.
Expert angler
Kingfishers eat mainly fish, predominantly minnows and sticklebacks, but they also take aquatic insects, freshwater shrimps and even tadpoles. They prefer small fish but can handle anything up to 8 cm in length.
Branches overhanging shallows make essential fishing perches. Once it locates a suitable prey and assessed its depth, it dives. At the entry into the water, with an open dagger-like beak and eyes closed by the third eyelid thus, the bird is blindfolded as it catches the fish.
On return to the perch, it repeatedly strikes the fish to kill it. Only then will the spines in the fins of some species, such as sticklebacks, relax to allow the bird to swallow it, head first. Thus, each bird must eat at least its bodyweight of fish each day. (Ref: www.rspb.org.uk)
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The place to spot the elusive kingfisher is near rivers, canals, lakes, ponds, streams, flooded gravel pits, and even tiny streams in towns almost wherever a ready supply of small fish such as minnows, bullheads, and stickleback. These fish make most of the kingfisher's diet, but it will eat insects: such as caddis fly larvae and dragonflies, tadpoles, small molluscs and crustaceans such as crayfish.
Minnows are eaten whole head first, but spiny fish such as sticklebacks are beaten against the kingfisher's perch until they are dead and their spines flat enough for the bird to swallow them comfortably. After that, you might see the kingfisher juggling the fish in its beak to get it the right way up to swallow. On average, adults catch a fish once every two or three dives, while juveniles only catch one every eight or ten dives until they gain expertise. Unfortunately, some young birds drown because they dive too often, and their feathers become soaked in learning the art.
Pairing and nest-building
Throughout autumn and most of the winter, individual kingfishers keep to their territory, male and female, using separate water areas. Still, in January or February, the pair bond is established or renewed. The birds chase each other, often at considerable heights, in a swooping, diving aerobatic display, or they perch on a branch bobbing and bowing to each other. The attentive male will even fetch fish to feed to his partner.
From mid-February to mid-April, you may hear the infrequent song of the kingfisher—a rapid, high-pitched succession of varied whistles. However, the bird's typical and distinctive call is a loud, shrill 'chee' or 'chikee'.
Kingfisher pairs look for a nesting site, usually in an exposed bank of a stream or lake. Upon finding a suitable location, they excavate a tunnel, which they start by flying at the bank and driving in their substantial bills; they then build a chamber at the end of it. Failing to find a suitable waterside bank, the kingfisher will nest among the roots of a fallen tree perhaps, near the water's edge. So if you spot a kingfisher flying through woodland, the chances are it will be fetching food to take to an inland nest.
Raising a family
Kingfishers lay eggs between the end of March and early July. Pairs can rear two broods a season, and sometimes even three—male and female share in incubation when the clutch, usually seven eggs, is complete. At first, the eggs are translucent pink, but they turn a shiny white colour during the 19-21 day incubation period. Both adults diligently feed the young which are blind and naked when they hatch. The young are fed a diet of tiny fish at first. Then, after about ten days, their eyes open, and the first signs of feathers appear; after two weeks, they can eat much larger fish.
To encourage their parents to keep them well supplied with food, the young keep up a continuous trilling or purring sound; the hungriest stand at the front of the chamber calling for food while the more contented sleep at the rear. The accumulation of fish bones and regurgitated pellets and the youngsters' excrement make such a mess of the tunnel and chamber that the adults have to take a quick bath every time they leave the nest.
The breeding season ends when the juveniles are chased out of the territory by their parents, who threaten them unmercifully and drive them out in noisy chases. Most go no more than 5-7 miles away, although some have been recorded as travelling up to 160 miles, mainly in the autumn, searching for new food sources.
Hazards to survival
Winter is an occupational hazard for all our resident birds. Kingfishers are particularly vulnerable if the weather turns cold enough to freeze lakes and ponds and cut off the supply of fish. Many die of cold and starvation. Those fortunate enough to find enough food to survive face an additional hazard by man changing the watersides. Removal of trees used for perches, water pollution, the regrading of banks that destroy nesting sites, and the levelling of streambeds that reduce the number of fish all drastically affect the kingfisher's chances of survival. Fortunately, the kingfisher is still fairly widespread in the British Isles. Kingfishers is a fully protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981
References
Kingfisher Breeding, Feeding and Territory - The RSPB. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/kingfisher/breeding-feeding-territory/)
Kingfisher Breeding, Feeding and Territory - The RSPB. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/kingfisher/breeding-feeding-territory/
(Ref: www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com