The common kingfisher is a small bird slightly larger than a sparrow. Those who were lucky enough to see this baby were sure to admire his bright plumage and wanted to know better what kind of miracle it was.
General description of the bird
The common kingfisher (we provide a photo of it in the article) can also be known as a fisherman, or a blue kingfisher. It belongs to the kingfisher family. This bird attracts attention with its bright plumage, elongated beak and short tail. Its size is quite small, on average, the weight is 25-45 g, and the length of the wings is up to eight centimeters.
You can recognize the kingfisher by its color. The back of the bird is painted in a bluish-green hue with a brilliant sheen. On the head and wings, small specks of a light tone are noticeable. The abdomen is reddish, the neck on both sides and the neck are white. Small legs have a bright red color. If you look at a kingfisher close up, its color will not seem so saturated, but in the distance or during the flight, due to the refraction of light, the color scheme becomes bright and unusual.
This kind of bird tries not to move on the ground becausetheir paws are not designed for walking. Basically, the common kingfisher, if he wants to move, then flies. He can rest for a long time sitting on a twig, a stone or on plexuses of roots that hang over the water.
Gender characteristics
At first glance, males and females do not differ from each other. If there is an opportunity to look closely and compare the pair, the differences become more noticeable. So, it can be noted that in males the plumage is a little brighter. Females are inferior to their partners in size. Another sign can be a beak. In males, it is solid black, while in females, the mandible may be partially or completely red.
Habitat
Given that the species of kingfishers has six subspecies, these birds are very common. They can be found in northwestern Africa, New Zealand, Indonesia and Italy. But it is especially interesting that the common kingfisher also settles near some water bodies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. From wintering in central Russia, the bird returns at the end of April.
Kingfishers prefer to live near water bodies. But these birds have rather high requirements for the nesting site. They pick up clean water bodies, usually shallow, but not too shallow. The water in them should be running, and the banks should be steep and overgrown with shrubs. In addition, these birds do not like neighborhoods with other birds. As places like this become less and less due to human activity, the number of kingfishers has been steadily declining.
What eats
The common kingfisher does not live near water bodies in vain, because he loves to eat small fish, such as sculpins and bleak. It occasionally catches aquatic invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp. Also in the diet of the kingfisher may be insects living near the water, frogs or dragonfly larvae.
If a kingfisher has no family, he can catch and eat up to 12 fish per day. Kingfishers are able to hunt from the air, but more often, in order to catch prey, the bird sits on a branch above the water and guards the victim. Usually these are secluded places where the feathered one will not be seen.
When the opportunity arises, he attacks by diving at an acute angle into the water. With the same ease, kingfishers take off from under the water. If the attack on the fish was unsuccessful, the bird returns to a secluded place and continues to wait for a convenient moment. She can take the caught fish to the nest and eat it there, or she can swallow it while sitting on a branch.
How a couple is created
The common kingfisher is a monogamous bird and creates a family during nesting. The male takes the first step, he catches a fish and presents it to his chosen one. The female decides whether to accept the gift or not. If she takes the fish, it means that they have become a couple. This family will be together for the entire warm period, and for the winter the couple flies apart from each other. But in the spring, they each return to their last year's nest, where they meet again and reunite to start a family.
Bird nesting
Since kingfishers feed on underwater life, it is convenient for them to build their homes right off the coast of water bodies. To do this, they choose a sharply dangling coastal slope and dig a nest in it. Usually the entrance to it is hidden from prying eyes behind the branches of bushes, trees and roots. These thickets also help to protect the nest from possible predators. Several pairs of kingfishers usually settle on the cliff. Between their nests, the minimum distance is 300 meters, but sometimes more than a kilometer.
The couple has been digging holes for more than seven days, and the length of the hole can reach from 30 cm to a meter. The corridor is horizontal. It happens that the birds, not reaching the depth of the house they need, meet an obstacle, then they leave it and begin to make a new mink again. At the end of the corridor, they make an extension that will be their nesting room. They don't put a pad. But in old burrows, a layer of scales, bones and other food debris accumulates on the floor. In such conditions, flies lay their larvae.
Offspring
Common kingfisher (we will omit the description of its mating games) brings from 4 to 11 eggs in one clutch. They are shiny white. Each parent takes part in incubation - for about three weeks, the male and female alternately sit on the clutch.
Chicks do not appear at the same time, naked and blind. But their growth is fast, and by the 24th day the young birds are completely feathered, although the color is still different from the parent - they are not so bright. Beingin the burrow, the young produce a constant murmuring warble that can be heard even a few meters away.
Parents feed offspring with butchered insect larvae. Babies can fly out as early as the third week of life. At this time, their growth is less than that of adults. After leaving the nest, the chicks follow their parents for a couple of days, who continue to feed them.
Now you know how the common kingfisher lives. The bird, the description of which you are reading in the article, by the way, is capable of bringing two offspring in a summer. If circumstances permit, another clutch is obtained by the end of June. Usually, by this time, the spring clutch chicks have left the parental nest. But it happens that the first babies do not have time to fly away yet, and the female is already laying eggs for the second time.
The second chicks are ready to fly away by mid-August. After the offspring leave the nest, all the birds can fly in a flock for a few more days, but soon each begins its own separate life.
Wintering
After all the offspring have flown "on their own bread", the kingfishers are preparing to fly away for the winter. This period falls on the last days of August and can sometimes drag on until October. From Russia, kingfishers fly to North Africa and South Europe. Siberian inhabitants choose South Asia for wintering. Birds living in the North Caucasus stay in their area all year round.
Common Kingfisher: interesting facts
Finally, here are some interesting facts about the kingfisher.
These babies live about 15years. And despite the fact that they are quite common in our area, it is very rare to see them, because they love solitude.
Interestingly, monogamous male kingfishers in some cases are able to create several families at the same time.
Unlike most birds, they do not gather in flocks, except for the autumn migration for the winter. Even if several birds stop at fish ponds at once, each one at the same time adheres to its own space, which it vigilantly guards.
