Exotic bird may be in decline

I WAS walking the dog along the canal bank when I saw something that I always find exciting, however often it happens. A kingfisher burst out of a bank-side bush and headed off low over the water — an electric blue streak, wings beating so fast they were a blur.

Kingfishers must have the most exotic plumage of any Irish bird. They really look as though they belong in a tropical rainforest rather than on the banks of the Grand Canal. The back is a metallic cobalt colour and this is tinged with green on the head and wings, the under-parts and ear coverts are bright chestnut and the chin and sides of the neck are white.

The beak is black and orange and the legs are bright red.

These are really the colours of a gaudy butterfly rather than a bird.

I suspect that the majority of Irish people have never seen a kingfisher in the wild. The exceptions would be anglers, boaters and other water lovers. They are actually quite widely distributed around the country, except in the north-west.

David Cabot’s ‘Irish Birds’ gives an estimate of between 1,300 and 2,100 breeding pairs in the country and notes that numbers are declining. I’m not sure of the accuracy of this. Kingfishers are not easy to count and, though there’s little doubt that they’re declining over most of their European range, my own experience suggests that they have increased in numbers in Ireland over the past 20 years.

Anyway, we’re probably going to find out who’s correct fairly soon because a nationwide kingfisher survey has just been started. It’s being co-ordinated by Olivia Crowe of BirdWatch Ireland and also involves the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Office of Public Works.

They’re looking for help from people who know where there are kingfishers and, in particular, where there are kingfisher nesting sites. The birds are territorial and seldom travel long distances, except in very hard winters when their fishing grounds freeze over.

They nest in burrows in river or canal banks. The burrows are about a metre long and end in a nest chamber. The birds usually excavate them themselves with their formidable beaks but have been known to take over disused rat holes or sand martin burrows.

At the end of the burrow these beautiful things construct what may well be the most disgusting bird’s nest in the world. It’s made from left-over bits of fish — heads, tails, fins and so on — plus pellets of scales and bones vomited up by the birds.

All this rapidly starts to decompose with the result that kingfisher eggs, which are almost perfectly round, are pinkish-white when they’re laid but rapidly become stained an evil greenish-brown.

They feed by waiting on a perch, usually a tree branch overhanging the water, and then diving on their prey. They can penetrate the water for a depth of at least a metre and have eyes specially adapted for seeing in both air and water. I have occasionally seen them fishing off bridges and tall reeds, though reeds tend to sway too much in the wind to give them an accurate shot.

On the canals Waterways Ireland periodically cut all branches overhanging the water as these can be an obstacle to boats. When they do this I have noticed that kingfishers tend to abandon the territory, presumably because of the sudden lack of fishing perches.

Obviously the main item in their diet is small fish — they particularly like minnows and won’t tackle anything much larger. But they also eat quite a lot of large invertebrates. At times they will feed almost exclusively on Gammarus, the freshwater shrimp that is only finger-nail sized.

If you want to contribute to the kingfisher survey email [e-mail]

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