B (ig) B (eaked) King - Stork Billed Kingfisher

South Andaman

Lets start the year off bright and with good light !

Remember those fight themed video games with swords? My favourite one was Soul Edge on PS. There’s invariably one character in them with a sword that’s obviously too big for him. Well, that’s these guys. Just the sword replaced with an oversized beak. I swear that’s what I was reminded of as soon as I saw my first one and now it’s stuck. Look at them, the beak is 1/3rd the size of the body ! Now just imagine that guy 6 feet tall. Jurassic No? Well, Pelargopsis capensis is their scientific name and the word Pelargopsis comes from the Greek words pelargos, meaning "stork", and opsis, meaning "appearance". They’re found all over India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Phillippines and Indonesia.

These guys are among the biggest kingfishers you can find. Of the ones I’ve seen, The Crested Kingfishers are bigger but they’re black and white. With these guys the details and colours pop a lot more and I was thinking, “Man, that’s a beautiful kingfisher” when I saw my first one mainly cause of the size and close distance. I don’t think I’d seen a kingfisher fill that much of my frame on the viewfinder before that. I saw quite a few of these guys in my time in South Andaman but most of the sightings pale in comparison to two where the light was oh so good. So much of what we do depends on the uncontrollable like weather, light, sightings, I mean most of it is uncertain but days it clicks, it just does and makes it all worthwhile like these two sightings of the Stork Billed Kingfisher. Good, light, good background, colourful subject. Good, just good. If you want it all good, you’d have to engineer it in a studio but then, where’s the thrill in that right? Funnily I can tell my good sightings without expanding the photo online cause the good ones look like brighter candy arranged in the thumbnails that the kid would go for first.

So, Stork Billed Kingfishers live in large families of around six or so individuals and are known to be territorial. They will take on much bigger birds like eagles if they come into family territory. The ones I saw in Andaman were in no way bothered by our presence. They just went about their business of hunting and let me go about mine. They hunt fish, crustaceans, frogs and even small rodents generally. Now, these guys can be tree dwelling or decide to dig a hole by a river bank. They are also known to use termite nests for nesting. Interestingly, unlike other Kingfishers, these guys hunt other birds and chicks as well when they cant find food in their usual haunts. Like all Kingfishers, these guys play a role in the balance of fish population. Without them, fish populations would skyrocket in fresh water which would result in the fish finishing off all available food which in turn would have a cascading effect of the entire eco system.

Kingfishers are always fun and I really had a great time trying to catch these guys’ moods and expressions. I really wanted to catch them in action but that was a privilege that only the Common Kingfisher has given me so far. Well, that’s a story for another time.

Happy New Year Everyone !