Kingfisher: the natural beauty of a bird when hunting

images for your wallpaper or work documents. Extremely vivid footage of this water bird hunting moment.

Kingfisher image.

As you know, kingfishers are one of the earliest birds in the world. And now there are many species of kingfishers with different physical characteristics and environments (about more than 90 species of kingfishers). We often define kingfishers as birds that live by hunting fish for food. Kingfishers are killers of small fish living on coastal and river banks. Although they have small bodies, their speed and agility are unmatched by any other bird. Below, I will join you to learn more about this bird!

I. Origin and classification

Kingfishers belong to the family Citronella, they are mostly found in Africa and are widely distributed across the continents of the world mainly in Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Currently birds are divided into 3 main families: the Kingfisher family; the Lemongrass family; and the Kingfisher family.

II. Features and characteristics

1, Characteristics

Kingfishers are small and brightly colored birds. When they reach adulthood, their bodies are about 10-45cm long, and their weight, depending on the family, is usually from 10-355 grams. Females are usually smaller in length and weight than males.

Their heads are very round and hard, with a very long, hard, large and jet-black beak that helps them catch fish underwater, especially they can judge the depth of the water accurately. The neck of the bird is quite short, the belly is large and the back is slightly curved. The body of the kingfisher is quite round. The legs are small with extremely sharp claws. Covering the whole body is bright feathers with green and blue being the most common colors.

2, Characteristics

One characteristic that helps them identify each other is that they cannot sing but they can make sounds when flying. The way kingfishers hunt: when perched on a tree branch, they observe prey underwater and when they aim at that prey, they immediately dive into the water to catch it.

The food of kingfishers is mainly small fish living in rivers or coastal areas such as bream, thornback, shrimp… and some species can also eat insects, worms… However, in the summer, there are often floods, making hunting prey difficult, leading to starvation of parent birds and birds can die from cold weather or lack of food in this harsh winter, causing the population to take many years to recover the number that died after a bad winter.

3, Reproduction

Kingfishers usually breed in spring and summer and the form of reproduction is pairing (when the breeding season comes, the female and male birds build nests together). They make nests from leaves, dry roots… and are made in caves, tree holes.

Kingfishers lay 3-5 eggs at a time (small, green eggs with brown spots).

After 12-17 days of incubation, the eggs hatch and the parents care for the chicks together. Each chick can eat 12-18 fish a day and is ready to leave the nest at 24-25 days old, but if the food supply is poor, it can take up to 35-40 days.

III. Habitat of kingfishers

Kingfishers live throughout the tropics and temperate zones, especially in central and southern England. They often live in slow-flowing waters such as rivers, lakes, canals, etc. and sometimes live along the coast. In Vietnam, kingfishers are often concentrated in the northern mountainous region and the South Central region.

Because kingfishers are wild birds, it is very difficult to domesticate them and force them to live in cages or in narrow environments; also because of their predatory nature, it is difficult for us to raise this bird species and cannot meet their nutritional needs.