Common Kingfisher ( Hebbal Lake )


This guy has become quite popular offlate at Hebbal because of the fact he perches at a place that is quite accessible for photographers and also he does seem not seem to mind people taking photos of him. The fact is lot of weed growth on the periphery of lake has resulted in puddles being formed which has lot of small fishes. Watched this guy for around 30 minutes on the way he catches fishes and took around 50 shots. I was reading an article on BBC wildlife about some facts on common kingfisher and it mentions the following

" Kingfishers hunt for fish in rivers, lakes and ponds. They perch on a favourite branch near to water and watch out, with their keen eyesight, for a suitable fish. When a fish is spotted, the kingfisher will dive, beak first, into the water. The kingfisher has to rely on memory to predict where the fish will be after it has entered the water and will sometimes return to the surface with a stone in its beak if its prediction was wrong. After it has caught a fish it will fly back to its perch with the fish in its beak. The kingfisher does not eat it immediately and instead will beat the fish against its perch to kill it and then consume it head-first."