Rama Krishna Sangem
Friends and fans of BRS former MP and Green India Challenge founder leader J Santosh Kumar eagerly wait for his birds photos every Sunday Sunday morning. He never disappoints them, by taking pains to get close ups of our winged guests, with equal wait and anticipation. This Sunday, November 23, he trained his camera lens on a pair of beautiful Common Kingfisher, a tiny exotic bird. Three are sitting postures and one is of flying one. Well captured! Needless to say, he close to 1,000 views and likes too by noon.
Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.
This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.
Colour and shape varies in geographies
These birds have the typical short-tailed, dumpy-bodied, large-headed, and long-billed kingfisher shape. The adult male of the western European subspecies has green-blue upper parts with pale azure-blue back and rump, a rufous patch by the bill base, and a ear-patch. It has a green-blue neck stripe, white neck blaze and throat, underparts, and a black bill with some red at the base.
The flight of the kingfisher is fast, direct and usually low over water. The short, rounded wings flutter rapidly, and a bird flying away shows an electric-blue “flash” down its back Common kingfishers are important members of ecosystems and good indicators of freshwater community health. The highest densities of breeding birds are found in habitats with clear water, which permits optimal prey visibility, and trees or shrubs on the banks.
