Kingfishers

Dear Chris,

Thanks for the message, and welcome to the Rye Meads community page! 

Kingfishers are fantastic! I love them, they are so fascinating! You never know where you will see them, is great that you got a surprise viewing at Longleat.

The best time to see kingfishers is when they are feeding young. Once the eggs have been laid both the kingfishers will take turns incubating. One adult will incubate and the other will be around site finding its own dinner. When they are incubating we don't get good views - they will take turns at incubating, and will 'change over' once every 2-3 hours. They will incubate the eggs for 19-21 days, once they hatch the young keep both adults busy finding fish. Each chick can eat 12-18 fish a day, and they 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.

The best time to see kingfishers is when the adults are feeding the young. Both adults will be in and out of the whole taking fish into the bank every 10-20 minutes or so.

The chicks are normally ready to leave the nest when they are 24-25 days old, but if the fish supply is poor, they can take up to 37 days.  We tend not to see the young fledge - they tend to do it first thing in the morning before any one is at the reserve. Once out of the nest, we don't really see the young - they hide away so no predators can find them. The young are fed for a couple of days before the adults will drive them out of their territory.

Sorry for the long reply! In short - the best time to see kingfishers is when they are feeding young as they will be in and out of the bank every 10-20 minutes bringing fish to the demanding young.

The kingfisher here are currently feeding young from their third brood. We think that the young will fledge this weekend (we can't guarentee anything!). This morning we have seen one of the adults taking a fish into the bank so they haven't fledged yet! If you do come this weekend you might have a chance of seeing them!

Sorry for the long reply - I got a little carried away!

Louise

Hi Louise

Rye Meads is quite a long journey for me, but I do it for the kingfisher.

When is the best time during Spring to see them pairing up and courting? I don't wish to make the trip too early.

Thakns Chris

Hi Chris,

How are you? Well, it's hard to say when they'll start pairing up and courting - it will be end of March/ beginning of April. I say that, but you can never quite tell! Some times they start late, sometimes early! Keep an eye on here around that time and I'll write when they start.

If you want to see kingfishers the best time is when they are feeding young rather than when they are courting, I'll be writing when the young hatch and the parents are busy feeding on here as well.

I don't know if that is any help!

Louise

Hi Louise

I'm starting to feel a bit better than you. :-)

I will keep a look out on here as you suggest. Thank you for the information. :-)

Hi, I am hopeing to visit sometime in Feb, maybe towards the end . Would this be a good time to see the Kingfishers ??

Thanks.

Hello!

The kingfishers are around all year, so there is a possibility of seeing them all year. February is the time (ish) that kingfishers are meant to start pairing up - although over the last couple of year the kingfishers have been pairing up a little bit late... so they might be pairing up they might not!

The best time to see the kingfishers is when they are feeding young - they will be constantly flying around the site catching fish. At that point you can watch the bank and they will be in and out every few minutes.

I hope that made sense!

Louise

Hi Louise, thanks for the info.

I hope I helped!

Over the weekend (5 and 6th February)  we were getting great views of two kingfishers hanging around the bank! Very exciting! They haven't started courting yet, its a bit to early, but fingers crossed everyone!

Hi

We went to Rye Meads end of August last year and had a wonderful day, the kingfishers were on their 3rd brood I think (is that right Louise?) and were in and out all day feeding them.  Only downside was the algae on the water at that time, meant the kingfishers weren't actually 'fishing' in front of the hide at that time but were flying with with their catch from elsewhere and sitting on the perches for quite some time allowing us the opportunity to get some lovely pics.

Again the algae meant the pics were't great but was our first time of seeing a kingfisher and we were so excited.  Everytime they flew in they would give a great display, making sure we managed to capture all sides :)

Plan to go early March (probably with my big bruv Big Robbo 27) and hope to be just as pleased.  Rye Meads is a lovely reserve and well worth the travel.

There great Pictures Jo, maybe you could post them on the main forum also, I bet most people on there would love to see them.