Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis): Facts, Diet and Habitat

Appearance: what does a common kingfisher look like?

The common kingfisher has the classic kingfisher shape: a big head, a short tail, a compact body and a long, straight, pointed bill. Seen in good light it is unmistakable. The crown and wings are blue-green with fine pale spots, a vivid azure-blue stripe runs down the back to the rump, and the underparts and cheeks are bright orange. There is a white patch on the throat and on the side of the neck, and the small legs and feet are coral red.

The famous blue is a structural color. Instead of a blue pigment, tiny air pockets and protein structures in the feathers scatter blue light back to the eye. That is why the bird can look green-blue in one moment and electric blue the next as the angle changes. The orange underparts come from pigment.

Males and females are almost identical. The easiest way to tell them apart is the bill: the male’s is all black, while the female’s lower mandible is mostly orange-red. Young birds are duller and greener, with darker legs.

In flight a kingfisher usually shows as a fast, low blue flash zipping straight along the river, often with a sharp, high whistle, chee or tee-ee.

Size: how big is a kingfisher?

The common kingfisher is only about the size of a sparrow, although its long bill makes it look larger in photos.

Size differs slightly between the seven recognized subspecies, by up to about 10%. Birds in southern and Southeast Asia tend to be a little smaller and brighter than those in Europe.

Habitat and range

The common kingfisher has one of the widest ranges of any kingfisher. It breeds across most of Europe except the far north, in North Africa and across temperate Asia to Japan, and south through India and Southeast Asia to Indonesia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In North Africa it is mostly a winter visitor.

It needs clean, clear, slow-moving or still water with plenty of small fish and perches close to the surface. Typical places are rivers, streams, canals, lakes, gravel pits and park ponds with bushes and overhanging branches. It can live in towns and city parks as long as the water is unpolluted. Because it needs clear water to see its prey, the kingfisher is a good sign of a healthy river.

Most kingfishers in western and southern Europe are resident all year. In winter many move to estuaries, harbors and rocky coasts when inland waters freeze. Birds from northern and eastern Europe and Siberia migrate south, some traveling thousands of kilometers, mostly at night.

Diet: what do kingfishers eat?

Kingfishers eat mainly small fish, typically 2–10 cm (1–4 in) long, such as minnows, sticklebacks, bullheads, small roach and young trout. The largest fish taken are about 12 cm (5 in). They also catch aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, freshwater shrimps and, now and then, tadpoles and small frogs.

The hunting method is simple but precise. The kingfisher sits quietly on a branch or post 1–2 m (3–7 ft) above the water, bobs its head to judge the distance, then dives steeply in, grabbing the fish with its bill rather than spearing it. Back on the perch, it beats the fish against the branch and swallows it headfirst so the fins and scales fold flat. Indigestible bones are coughed up later as small pellets. For a step-by-step look, read how do kingfishers catch fish?.

Diving into water creates a problem for any bird’s eyes, because light bends at the surface and the eye must adjust from air to water in a split second. The kingfisher closes a transparent third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, as it enters the water. Each eye also has two areas of especially sharp vision, and the bird switches between them as it plunges, which helps it keep track of a moving fish underwater.

Where and how to see a kingfisher

The best way to see a kingfisher is to walk slowly along a quiet, clear river, canal or lake edge and listen for its sharp, piping whistle. Often the first sign is a blue streak flying low and straight over the water, then landing on a branch where it can be surprisingly hard to spot against leaves.

Late summer and autumn are good times, because young birds are wandering in search of territories and are more visible. In winter, check estuaries, harbors and park lakes that stay ice-free. Many nature reserves in Europe have hides with posts placed over the water where kingfishers regularly perch to fish.

Keep a respectful distance from nest banks in spring and summer. In the UK the kingfisher is specially protected, and disturbing an active nest without a license is an offence.

Behavior and territory

Common kingfishers are solitary for most of the year. Each bird defends its own stretch of river, usually at least 1 km (0.6 mi) long and sometimes more than 3 km (2 mi), because it needs a steady supply of fish within reach. Intruders are chased off with loud calls, and fights can be fierce: rivals sometimes grip each other’s bills and try to hold one another underwater.

Pairs form in late winter, but the male and female keep separate territories until spring. Courtship involves noisy chases and courtship feeding, in which the male offers fish to the female.

Reproduction and life cycle

Kingfishers nest in burrows. Both birds dig a straight tunnel 60–90 cm (2–3 ft) long into a steep, bare earth bank, usually beside water, using their bills to loosen soil and their feet to kick it out. The tunnel ends in a rounded chamber. No nest material is added, but the floor soon fills with fish bones from regurgitated pellets.

The female lays usually 5–7 glossy white eggs, sometimes as few as 2 or as many as 10. Both parents incubate them for about 19–21 days. The chicks stay in the dark burrow for another 23–27 days, fed on fish by both parents, before flying out. A pair often raises two broods a year and sometimes three, starting the next clutch before the previous young are fully independent.

Young kingfishers have a hard start. They must learn to fish within days of leaving the nest before their parents drive them away, and many drown or starve in their first weeks.

Lifespan

Kingfishers have short lives. In Britain the typical life expectancy for a bird that reaches breeding age is about 2 years, and most birds breed only once or twice. The oldest ringed kingfisher recorded in Britain lived about 4 years and 6 months. High breeding output, with several broods a year, keeps the population going despite heavy losses.

Predators and threats

Natural predators include sparrowhawks and other birds of prey, while rats, mink and other mammals may raid nest burrows. Domestic cats also kill some kingfishers. But the biggest natural killer is cold weather: in long freezes, rivers ice over and kingfishers cannot fish, and a single hard winter can wipe out a large share of a regional population. Summer floods can drown burrows or make the water too muddy to fish.

Human threats include river pollution, which kills fish and clouds the water, straightened or concrete-lined rivers with no earth banks for nesting, and disturbance at nest sites. Because kingfishers feed at the top of a freshwater food chain, they can also build up harmful chemicals from polluted water.

Conservation status

The IUCN lists the common kingfisher as Least Concern because of its huge range and large population. BirdLife International estimates roughly 160,000–320,000 individuals in Europe alone. Numbers rise and fall with winter weather but have been broadly stable over recent decades. In the UK there were about 3,850 breeding pairs in 2016, and the species is Green-listed.

In the European Union, the kingfisher is listed on Annex I of the Birds Directive, which requires special protection of its habitat. Cleaner rivers have helped kingfishers return to many towns and cities in recent decades.

Myths, culture and the bullet train

In Greek mythology, Alcyone was turned into a kingfisher, and the gods calmed the sea for her nesting each winter. This legend gave English the phrase “halcyon days” for a calm, happy time, and halcyon is an old name for the kingfisher. The scientific name Alcedo also comes from the Latin word for kingfisher.

Kingfishers are wildly popular with photographers and are often seen on stamps and logos across Europe. They even helped shape modern technology: the nose of Japan’s 500 Series Shinkansen was modeled on the kingfisher’s bill to make the train quieter in tunnels. See how a kingfisher inspired the bullet train.

The common kingfisher belongs to a large family of more than 110 kingfisher species worldwide, from tiny forest kingfishers to Australia’s laughing kookaburra. Find out more in is a kookaburra a kingfisher?.