Swoop In ; Swoop In & Snatch - Kingfishers

Pics : 1 - 4 = Stork Billed Kingfisher ; South Andaman | Pics : 5 - 8 = Collared Kingfisher ; South Andaman | Pic : 9 = Grey Headed Kingfisher ; Masai Mara National Reserve | Pics : 10 - 12 = Common Kingfisher ; Kanha Tiger Reserve | Pic : 13 = Crested Kingfisher ; Sattal | Pics : 14 - 16 = White Throated Kingfisher ; South Andaman

It’s taken a while for all of us to be who we are today. Millions of years of steady changes based on the experiences of generations have led to the creatures of today looking like and behaving the way they do. All of which has functionality attached to it. Nature doesn’t waste energy on much else. Now, the boss beast for catching fish in this universe is obviously, The Kingfisher. Everything about it, starting from the design of the huge bill, to the wings that double as oars in the water, to that streamlined head made for diving; all of it rotates and revolves around its preference for fish as prey. No wonder we call them what we do. In fact any Human who’s fishing without nets is emulating what this bird does day in and day out no matter what other tool we use except the nets which eliminates the use of skill in my book and bombs which are actually used more often than we’d like to know.

There’s no mistaking them and they’re all over the planet. If there’s still or slow moving water with fish, chances are there’ll be Kings around unless we’ve chased them away. They’re in a huge family called the Alcedinidae with 118 species of Kingfishers in the order Coraciiformes which has my friends the Bee Eaters and Rollers in it as well. All of them successful, specialized hunters and survivors. Interestingly, the Kingfishers who rely on hunting fish more have evolved longer beaks while broad beaks are seen in ones that hunt prey off the ground. Their eyes can focus underwater just as easily as in flight and can switch from binocular vision to monocular vision easily. There are 12 kinds of Kingfishers in India and 3 others in Kenya. I’ve seen 6 of those 15 at the time of writing this. Oh I hope to see a lot more.

Most times you see them; they're perched, staring down at the water in full concentration, full focus on their obsession. Fish. It’s a pretty full on way of life and I recon it’s a good one, for such a small creature to have taken the world with the hard work in its field. They will look at things around if there’s no action in the water and will give you cute stares. But if there’s anything in the water, you can forget about any attention from these guys. Their short dives to the water are fast and calculated. There’s no pattern flying about with them like in the case of Bee Eaters (Ref : Catching The Flying Catch). It’s a whole different system of precision hunting. Im sure they’ve got their dives and turn arounds in the water down to muscle memory just like Bee Eaters have their flight paths, but the timing of their strikes is obviously dependant on prey which is much larger and incidental than in the Bee Eater’s case.

Now there 118 kinds of Kingfishers around today, but they are said to have originated in the Indomalayan region about 27 million years ago. So yeah, they’ve been at it a long time and they’ve had their time to spread around. The modus operandi for the fishers among them is to hang around an open perch in wait, when prey is seen they swoop in, snatch and return to the same perch. If it’s a miss they go back to the same perch again and wait for the next attempt. They’ll smash bigger prey on the perch to kill them before consumption on the spot as well. Indigestible debris like bones, scales, etc is coughed up.

These guys usually dig holes in the ground to make nests. Some find cavities in trees and others may even choose man made ditches. Termite mounds are a common preference around the world for these guys’ nests as well. They dig out the termite nests which take the form of a small chamber at the end of a tunnel finally. The digging is done by both sexes. Their nests in termite mounds are usually a lot shorter than the ones dug into the ground. Interestingly, many of these guys have been known to kill themselves with the sheer velocity at which they launch themselves at the targeted nesting area when excavation begins.

To me, kingfishers have always been gorgeous subjects. Mostly brightly coloured with the exception of the monochrome ones and always full of action. It’s only recently that I ‘ve started to wait around to try and catch some of that action though. It’s not easy to be in the right spot for that neither is it easy to wait for his fish to show for a possible shot when there’s a tiger walking around I recon. But, waiting around them is something I seriously need to do more of. It’s just so boring though. Your chances of a picture are dependent on his fishing luck and skills along with the usual chances in wildlife photography.