I'm having a kingfisher bonanza for the last few days, this time encountered the Small Blue Kingfisher and the Pied Kingfisher still remains elusive. It was a nice opportunity for me to watch this kingfisher go about hunting. It was scanning around, sitting on the highest available point close to the waterbody, all the time bobbing its head or swaying it accompanied by a jerk with its tail followed by a click sound. At the sight of prey, it flew very low over the water surface, quickly dropped its beak into the water, picked its prey and flew to some other spot to relish on its prey. In about 10 minutes, this bluish-green bird had caught three fishes and then flew off with a 'chichee, chichee' sound.The third photograph is after a successful hunt but just before devouring the fish.
In the second photograph, the sun was directly opposite the camera and was casting strong shadows on the bird. Inorder to photograph the bird, I had to spot meter the shadow area and use a slower shutter speed, hence the background is completely washed out and reveals no details.
Man I like your site ;-) The Kingfisher is one of the best looking birds I've seen in a long time.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant blog Delson
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late response. Was involved in some empowerement work for the forest department and thus the delay.
My favourite wildlife destinations are Bandipur and Periyar though i do frequent trekking at Anamalais.
Looks like we an at the same wavelengths. I too got the little blue kingfisher at Periyar about 4 days back. Will be posting in my blog now.
Lets catch up sometime
Karthik