Sometime ago, a reader messaged me, expressing his fascination for kingfishers, and his disappointment at not being able to see them as often as before in urban environments, particularly referring to a situation in Goa.
He however did not make any reference to any species of kingfisher. It is likely that he was largely thinking of white-breasted kingfishers, which are part of arboreal settings, even man-made gardens. On the southern section of the Perumbakkam wetland, which is lined with trees, I have seen white-breasted kingfishers perched on trees and power-)lines, and having their eyes focussed more on the ground that on the waters.
A kingfisher from the subfamily halcyoninae (which represent tree kingfishers), the white-breasted kingfisher finds itself at home in a woody environment, which enables it to stick to a large part of its diet plan — unsuspecting insects, rodents and frogs and not to forget, weeny-little birds.
In Chennai, there is the possibility of getting to know two other kingfisher subfamilies, each bringing their own character to the dinner table.
The common kingfisher represents the subfamily alcedininae (river kingfishers), and the pied kingfisher, cerylonidae (water kingfishers). Both these kingfishers are skilful at snaring fish, and crustaceans are a secondary and minor part of their diet.
The fishing style of the pied kingfishers can be fairly described only if grand idioms from art, cricket and aeronautics are borrowed. The pied kingfisher hovers over the waters, before making the dive to get its prey. The controlled hovering seems to achieve the same effect as the backward movement that a fast bowler achieves after the bound, to rest his back foot. It’s this movement in bowling and the hovering ( essentially, a bit of sustained holding-back) in fishing that generates some extremely useful extra power.
The bird has so much control in the air that it does not have to return to a perch to make a meal of its prey. Breakfast finished, in flight.
The common kingfisher’s fishing is not restricted to rivers, as its subfamily suggests, but it takes a deadly plunge, also in lakes and other waterbodies. It plunges from a perch, after tracking its prey. It deals with the prey much like how some shrikes do — smashing it against something.
Field Notes is a weekly column about the birds of Chennai
