Kingfishers (stunning river birds – very secretive!)
Kingfishers are beautiful birds, with bright orange and blue feathers. You won’t see them much, as these river birds are very secretive, you may just hear them splash as these excellent divers swoop down into the water for a tasty fish dinner.
Kingfishers are some of nature’s best hunters, as they have third eyelids that close underwater, and fused toes to grip fish. Most are located in East of England and the home counties (simply because it’s more difficult to see fish in stormy waters).
These small birds (only around 17cm long) also need clean rivers to fish in, so do your bit to keep the waters clean, by never dropping litter and taking all your waste with you.
Kingfishers Build Clever (and smelly!) Nests
Like swans, kingfishers mate for life, and create unique burrows (rather than nests) to rear their young. Parents take turns to build unique tunnels at special angles, so the eggs don’t roll into the river.
One bird-watcher saw a pair of kingfishers making a tunnel that ‘smelled of rotting fish and coughed-up pellets’. And remarked that ‘even the kingfishers seemed to be mildly disgusted’, with each parent washing after leaving!
Young kingfishers fledge after around 3 weeks, with most independent within days. Ornithologist Paul Stancliffe calls these birds ‘the rock stars of the river’ as most are destined to ‘live fast and die young’.
If there is anything more flamboyantly haute couture in all of the fauna of the land, I have not seen it. Jim Crumley
Read Call of the Kingfisher, an enchanting book by a composer, who for 40 years, has observed the whistling calls of resident kingfishers, near his home on Northamptonshire’s River Nene.
Meet the Kingfisher’s Aussie Cousin!
Although England only has one species of kingfisher, there are 100 species worldwide. Including the largest – Australia’s kookaburra (Emma Whitelaw).
Known as ‘the bushman’s clock’, his laugh (which sounds like a human) can be heard for miles! This bird lives in family packs, also mates for life and can live up to 20 years.
Aussie kingfishers eat more varied food including snakes and lizards (which they bash against rocks, before swallowing whole). And rather than living near rivers, most live in open lands or in eucalyptus forests.
Another tropical relative is the Sacred Kingfisher, which lives mostly in the Western Pacific, in mangroves, woodlands, forests and river valleys.
