Kingfisher

This is the time of year when the summer’s brood of fledgling kingfishers are driven away from the home territory by their parents, and set off to look for good fishing grounds of their own.

They are looking for slow-moving, shallow rivers or streams, just like the Lambrok, with water quality good enough to support small fish. Sticklebacks and minnows are favoured food but kingfishers will take freshwater shrimp, aquatic insects and, a seasonal delicacy, tadpoles. A sturdy perch overhanging clear shallow water is essential and every year visitors to the reserve send in pictures they have taken of kingfishers perched above Lambrok Stream and its tributary.

Pictures of perching kingfishers taken in the reserve

Once the fledgling has found a suitable spot and identified its prey, it dives. As it enters the water, its beak is open and its eyes are closed by the third eyelid: all decisions about direction, depth, adjustments for current have already been made and the bird is flying (or swimming) blind. Back on its perch, with a fish in its beak, the kingfisher strikes its catch against the perch to kill it. Many small fish, not just sticklebacks, have spined fins to protect them against predators and killing the fish relaxes those spines. When the fish is dead, the kingfisher swallows it head first.

Keep watch for a flash of bright, iridescent blue, low over the water, and if the kingfisher will sit still for you, take its picture and send it to us.

Header image: taken in the reserve by Simon Knight