Iridescent kingfishers need clear rivers — can we help?

We need to rethink our disregard for water quality, and to get busy restoring Ireland’s rivers to good health

When light falls upon the kingfishers’ blue feathers, blue wavelengths are scattered more than other wavelengths, giving an ‘electric’ hue to the blues — a phenomenon known as the Tyndall effect. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Turquoise, cobalt blue, and flaming orange are not the colours we expect to see in our native birdlife. Such flamboyant, almost irridescent plumage is more typical among tropical birds. But kingfishers are native and widespread — even if catching a glimpse of them is rare for most of us.

This morning, though, I was lucky enough to get to watch one for ages, perched on a branch by Dublin's River Dodder, where the resident kingfishers are well known and much admired.