Time Traveling
Thinking about kingfishers works like a time machine: It beams me straight back to the summer of 2010, when I spent long, sun-drenched days in a kingfisher cabin with a photography buddy. I’d get up what felt like the middle of the night, to catch the best light.
Naturally, the kingfishers preferred to sleep in. So we had no choice but to catch up, sip tea, and laugh. And we did, until late in the afternoon, day after day. Oh what fun we had.
Kingfisher Alert
One of the great things about kingfishers, is that they usually announce their arrival with a sharp, high-pitched squeak.
That was our cue to pause the conversation and shift our focus (and lenses) to the birds.
Sometimes they’d just perch for a while, which, with such a beautiful creature, was already a treat. But that summer, there was also plenty of fishing… and a lot of mating.
Kingfisher Courtship – Consent
These courtships only last a few seconds. And truth be told, we missed a few intimate moments (…) Luckily, kingfishers are enthusiastic creatures, so we got more chances.
Before mating, the male performs a charming ritual: he offers the female a freshly caught, still-living fish. If she accepts, that’s the kingfisher version of consent. If she refuses, it’s her way of saying: “Let’s just be friends.”
And the male takes it gracefully. After all, she only rejected a fish, not him.
Then there’s a moment of feather-preening, and with another shrill squeak, they take off. Our sign to go back to laughing and talking, talking and laughing.
Later that summer, the result of all that fuss arrived: chicks being fed, one slippery fish at a time.
Those Were the Days
Needless to say, it was a wonderful summer. Sadly, the friend I shared it with is no longer here. And I haven’t photographed kingfishers since.
But often, on warm summer days, I still drift back to those moments, to the playful joy in and around that little wooden hide.
Kingfisher Facts
- Young kingfishers are offered fish head-first, so they can swallow them easily.
Females, in preparation for mating, are offered fish tail-first — so they can smash the still-living prey to death themselves by slapping it against a branch. - Sex differences: Female kingfishers have an orange lower mandible. Males have fully black beaks.
- Juveniles: Young kingfishers look exactly like adults, just a little duller, as if they were washed too hot and lost colour.
