By Susanne Masters
A splash and flash of colour in lowland waters that brightens the dullest day, kingfishers (Alcedo atthis) invest in numbers to overcome the odds against their species. Having up to six chicks per brood and three broods a season, just about keeps our kingfisher population going.
ICE BIRD
Good times for a kingfisher are clear water with plenty of little fish and aquatic insects to eat. Bad times take many forms. Flooding in summer can turn river water turbid, which makes it difficult for them to hunt their food. If winter’s cold forms impenetrable ice on the surface of water in their territory they have to seek unfrozen water. If they venture into areas that are part of another kingfisher’s territory there is no sharing of space, fishing rights are fought over. In cold winters kingfishers move to brackish and salty estuarine and seawater that is slower to freeze. Occasionally they take advantage of garden ponds stocked with little fish or tadpoles. Their movement to new places when winter is coldest and diving through holes in ice to catch fish might be why in German their name is ‘eisvogel’ meaning ice bird.