Saturday, March 23

The Amazing Pied Kingfisher

The Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) is our only kingfisher that habitually hunts from a hovering position.

It is reputed to be the world's longest bird (measured from bill to tail) that is capable of sustained hovering in still air. (1)

Whenever we happen upon stretches of shallow water I always keep an eye out for the distinctive pale shape hovering in mid air.

Recently I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I could get some reasonable pictures of this kingfisher hovering.

I hope you like them as much as I do!



(1) Carnaby, Trevor; Beat about the Bush - Birds, Jacana 2008

8 comments:

Sonja said...

Good shots!

Dirk Unkelbach said...

Hi Sue,
great shots !
Isn't it nice to capture a moment you have seen so often and where the pictures often are ... well, they d not represent quite what you imagined ?
These are really nice !

Congratulations.
Dirk

Coral Wild said...

Thank you Sonja.

Yes Dirk - I don't know how many times I've tried to capture this particular hovering!!

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

Great series of photos. Pity he didn't dive down to something.

Stewart M said...

Great pictures!!

I run a weekly "event" on my photoblog where people can link up their bird posts from around the world - it would be great for you to join in as well - I don't have too many contributions from Africa.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

PS: thanks for the follow on my "wordy" blog.

Joyful said...

Beautiful shots! It's difficult to get such great shots while the birds are in flight.

Gnetch said...

These are great shots! Very interesting! I wish I was good at taking pictures like you are!

Joyful said...

Lovely shots Sue! It is hard to capture really great photos of any bird in the air and you've managed to get some really nice ones. xx