The Colorful Kingfisher

A flash of turquoise or electric blue dives into a stream and quickly emerges again, flapping into the air with a fish in its beak. This often the first glimpse that people get of a kingfisher, a colorful bird with a relatively large head and beak. Despite the name, however, kingfishers are not all fish-eaters. Some species prefer lizards, snakes, crabs, or even insects - often catching the latter in flight. Moreover, only about a third of the world's kingfishers live near water. Their habitats range from dense tropical forests to coral islands to deserts. One desert dweller is the red-backed kingfisher, which makes its home in the dry interior of Australia.

The species that do fish are masters of the art. Usually, the bird watches patiently from a perch. When it spots a fish, it tenses for the dive, instinctively factoring in the refraction of light, which seems to alter the position of the fish. Then the bird dives toward the water, beating its wings to give it speed. If the fish is near the surface, the bird may just pluck it up. Otherwise, it folds its wings back and shoot into the water like a dart. "The whole act is a display of extraordinary skill, performed without hesitation or fumble." says the book The Life of Birds. Kingfishers are even capable of catching more then one fish at a time! And in cold regions some have been observed diving through thin ice to seize prey.


Kingfisher courtship rituals can be quite entertaining. Some species pair up in aerial chases, after which the male displays his nest-digging skills. Rituals may also include feeding- the male advertising his worthiness by offering the female a tasty morsel.

Kingfishers do not construct typical bird's nests. Some make their home in a chamber at the end of a tunnel that they may excavate in a bank, ditch, or gravel pit. Others set up house in a rabbit burrow or in a hole in a tree.

The common kingfisher has a vast range that stretches from Ireland in the northwest across Europe and Russia to the Solomon Islands in the southeast. A good number of common kingfishers, as well as the pied kingfisher and the white-throated kingfisher, can be found in Israel be the Sea of Galilee and along the Jordan River.


A particularly well-known kingfisher is Australia's laughing kookaburra. known for its fiendish 'laughter," the kookaburra is a fearless hunter whose diet includes snakes up to three feet long! Although kingfishers have few natural enemies, their numbers decline when rivers become polluted or forest habitats are destroyed. Indeed, approximately 25 kingfisher species are classified in categories ranging from near threatened to critically endangered. Hopefully, conservation efforts will help to preserve these beautiful and often entertaining birds.


By: Icek Blueyez