Common kingfisher is a small bird a little larger than a sparrow. Those who were lucky enough to see this baby necessarily admired his bright plumage and wanted to know better what kind of a miracle it was.
General description of the bird
An ordinary kingfisher (we provide a photo of it in the article) can also be known as a small fish, or a blue kingfisher. It belongs to the kingfisher family. This bird attracts attention with its bright plumage, characterized by an elongated beak and a short tail. Its size is very small, with an average weight of 25-45 g, and the length of the wings is up to eight centimeters.
You can recognize the kingfisher by color. The back of the bird is painted in a bluish-green hue with a brilliant shimmer. Small specks of light tone are noticeable on the head and wings. The belly is reddish, the neck on both sides and the neck is white. Small legs are bright red. If you look at the kingfisher close, 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 species of birds tries not to move on the ground, since their legs are not intended for walking. Basically, an ordinary kingfisher, if it wants to move, it flies. He can rest for a long time sitting on a twig, 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 you can take a closer look and compare the pair, the differences become more noticeable. So, it can be noted that the plumage of males is slightly brighter. Females are inferior to their partners in size. Another sign may be the beak. In males, it is solid black, while in females, the mandible can be partially or completely red.
Habitat
Considering that the kingfisher species has six subspecies, these birds are very common. They can be met in the northwestern territory of Africa, in New Zealand, Indonesia and Italy. But it is especially interesting that the common kingfisher also settles in some reservoirs of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. From wintering in central Russia, the bird returns in late April.
Kingfishers prefer to live near ponds. But these birds have rather high requirements for the nesting place. They pick up clean ponds, usually shallow, but not too shallow. The water in them should be flowing, and the banks should be steep and overgrown with shrubs. In addition, these birds do not like neighborhood with other birds. As such places are becoming less and less due to human activities, the number of kingfishers is steadily declining.
What eats
An ordinary kingfisher does not live in vain near ponds, because he loves to feast on small fish, for example, sculpin bulls and bleak. Sometimes it catches aquatic invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp. Also in the diet of the kingfisher there may be insects living near water, frogs or dragonfly larvae.
If the kingfisher does not have a family, he can catch and eat up to 12 fish per day. Kingfishers are able to hunt from the air, but more often, to catch prey, the bird sits on a twig above the water and guards the victim. Usually these are nooks where the feathered one will not be seen.
Whenever possible, he attacks, 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 carry the caught fish to the nest and eat it there, or she can swallow it while sitting on a branch.
How to create a pair
The common kingfisher is a monogamous bird and at the time of nesting creates a family. 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 a fish, it means that they have become a couple. This family will be together during the entire warm period, and for the winter the couple scatters separately from each other. But in the spring, each of them returns to its last year’s nest, where they meet again and reunite to create a family.
Bird nesting
Since kingfishers feed on underwater animals, it is convenient for them to build their houses right off the coast of water bodies. To do this, they choose a sharply ragged coastal slope and dig a nest in it. Usually the entrance to it is hidden from prying eyes behind branches of bushes, trees and roots. These thickets also protect the nest from possible predators. Several pairs of kingfishers usually settle on a cliff. Between their nests, the minimum distance is 300 meters, but sometimes more than a kilometer.
The pair has been digging holes for more than seven days, and the length of the recess can reach 30 cm to a meter. The corridor is horizontal. It happens that the birds, not reaching the depth of the house they need, encounter an obstacle, then they leave it and begin to make a new mink again. At the end of the corridor, they make an extension, which will be their nesting room. They do not lay the litter. But in old burrows, a layer of scales, seeds and other food residues accumulate on the floor. In such conditions, flies lay their larvae.
Progeny
The common kingfisher (we will omit the description of its mating games) brings in one clutch from 4 to 11 eggs. They have a brilliant white color. Each parent takes part in the incubation - for about three weeks, the male and the female alternately sit on the masonry.
Chicks do not appear simultaneously, naked and blind. But their growth is fast, and by the 24th day the young birds completely fledge, although the color is still different from the parent - they are not so bright. Being in a hole, the young one emits a constant babbling trill, which can be heard even a few meters from them.
Parents feed offspring with cut insect larvae. Kids can fly out already in 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 read in the article, among other things, can bring two offspring over the summer. If circumstances permit, another clutch is obtained by the end of June. Usually, by this time, chicks of spring masonry leave their parental nest. But it happens that the first babies still do not have time to fly away, and the female already lays eggs for the second time.
The second chicks are ready to fly by mid-August. After the offspring leaves the nest, all the birds can fly in a flock for several days, but soon everyone begins their own separate lives.
Wintering
After all the offspring has flown away "on their own bread", kingfishers are preparing for departure for wintering. This period falls on the last days of August and sometimes can drag on to October. Kingfishers from Russia fly to North Africa and Southern Europe. Siberian inhabitants choose South Asia for wintering. Birds living in the North Caucasus remain in their parts all year.
Common kingfisher: interesting facts
Finally, we give some interesting information about the kingfisher.
These crumbs live about 15 years. 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 kingfisher males in some cases are able to create several families at the same time.
Unlike most birds, they do not gather in flocks, with the exception of the fall migration for wintering. Even if several birds stop at the fish ponds at once, each one adheres to its own space, which guards vigilantly.