Nothing is quite as special as the first time you spot a kingfisher. Except perhaps the second time you spot one. Or maybe the third? Basically, every time you catch a glimpse of that unmistakable bright blue streak is not a moment you’ll forget in a hurry. Molly Martin tells us five facts about this gorgeous little bird.
Kingfishers are often a surprise the first time you see them, because they’re a lot smaller than you might expect! But this doesn’t mean you’ll mistake them for anything else. Their electric blue and vibrant orange feathers are so striking! They fly very fast so you have to keep a sharp eye out, but the whirr of cyan whizzing along the surface of a river is such a buzz. Their orange feathers have their colour because of tiny pigment granules, but the blue feathers actually don’t have any blue pigment at all! Instead. these colours are ‘structural’- created by the intricate structural arrangement of a transparent material on the feather surface, which reflects the light and makes it appear blue! Male and female kingfishers look very similar, but you can tell the difference if you look closely at the beak. Males’ beaks are all black, whereas the lower part of the female’s beak is a pinky-orange.
Despite some declines last century, kingfishers are currently increasing in their range in Scotland. Predominantly found in the south and central belt, they can be seen in a few places further north up the country. They are found by still or slow flowing water such as lakes, canals and rivers in lowland areas. Occasionally they may visit garden ponds if of a suitable size, and they are increasingly seen in more urban environments. Each kingfisher has a territory which is normally at least 1km of river, but may extend over 3/5 km! In winter, some individuals move to estuaries and the coast, and you may see more than one kingfisher in the same territory as their usual water sources freeze over. Breeding pairs may merge their territories together for the breeding season, and then divide them up again over winter.
Clean, slow-moving, shallow rivers or streams are the perfect territories because they contain enough fish for a kingfisher to prove itself worthy of its name! When hunting, the kingfisher will perch on a branch overhanging the shallows, watching out for the small creatures below. They prefer fish about 23 mm in length, but can handle anything up to 80mm long! Their diet is mainly made up of fish, chiefly minnows and sticklebacks, but they also take aquatic insects, freshwater shrimps and tadpoles etc to top up their diet. When the bird spies a potential meal and assessed its depth, it dives. As it enters the water, its beak is opened and its eyes closed by the third eyelid, meaning the bird is essentially catching the fish blindfolded! The kingfisher will then return to its perch, and repeatedly strike the fish against the branch to kill it. Only then will the spines in the fins of some species such as sticklebacks relax to allow the bird swallow it, head first. During courtship, male kingfishers will present food to their potential mate, and they always make sure to turn the fish around in their beak, so it goes down head first and she doesn’t end up choking! Each bird must eat at least its own bodyweight of fish each day!
Kingfishers make their nest somewhere quite unexpected. Instead of building a nest out of sticks, they dig a tunnel into the bank of a river! Both birds excavate the nest burrow, which is 60-90cm long, and the 6cm diameter is only a little wider than the bird. The nest chamber at the end has a slight depression to prevent eggs rolling out, but no material is brought to the nest. 2-3 broods of 6-7 eggs are raised in quick succession, normally in the same nest.
Both adults incubate the eggs and bring food to the chicks once they hatch. Each chick can eat 12-18 fish a day! To make sure each chick receives equal amounts of food, the chicks are fed in rotation: once a chick is fed, it moves to the back of the nest to digest its meal, causing the others to move forward to receive a fishy meal!