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Pied Kingfisher
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) is a kingfisher in the near passerine bird family Cerylidae, the water kingfishers. It is the only member of the genus Ceryle.
Pied Kingfishers hunt by hovering above water.
Pied Kingfishers dive bill first into water to catch fish.
Top view near Hodal in Faridabad District of Haryana, India.It is common throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia from Turkey to India to China. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate, other than seasonal movements.
The Pied Kingfisher is estimated to be the world's third commonest kingfisher, and is a noisy bird, unmissable within its range.
It is mainly a specialist fish-eater, although it will take crustaceans and large aquatic insects. It usually hunts by hovering stationarily over the water and dives down bill first directly below to catch fish.
It has evolved two unique strategies, shared by no other kingfishers. The Pied Kingfisher can hunt in both salt and freshwater.[1] It can also deal with prey without returning to a perch, and can, for example, catch a second fish, or eat small prey in flight. These adaptations mean that this kingfisher can hunt over the sea or in estuaries that lack the perches required by other kingfishers.
This approachable largish (25cm) bird is unmistakable, with its exclusively black-and-white plumage. Unlike some kingfishers, it is quite gregarious, and forms large roosts at night. It can be easily tamed.
Its nest is a hole in a bank, on its own or in a colony, where it lays 3-6 white eggs. The pied kingfisher sometimes reproduces co-operatively, with young non-breeding birds assisting the breeding pair.[1] As with all kingfishers, the nest of a Pied soon becomes unsanitary.
This species was initially believed to be descended from an ancestral American green kingfisher which crossed the Atlantic Ocean about 1 million years ago (Fry & Fry, 2000). However, more recently, Moyle (2006) considered it more likely that the Pied Kingfisher and the American green kingfishers are derived from an Old World species, with the Pied Kingfisher or its ancestor losing the metallic coloration afterwards.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Cerylidae
Genus: Ceryle
Boie, 1828
Species: C. rudis
Binomial name
Ceryle rudis
Source:Wikipedia encyclopaedia |
pekkavalo1, Luis52 has marked this note useful
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Hi Arjun,
Very good capture of Kingfisher in action. Good pose, composition and colours.
Thanks for sharing
Pekka
What a bird.... congratulations and thanks for showing it ..
- cako
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 545 W: 0 N: 735]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(3213) - [2008-04-01 14:10]
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Hi Arjun
this is a very nice kingfisher
well done.
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- gannu
(14691)
- [2008-04-01 17:34]
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Arjun, Nice shot of the pied kingfisher.The colors are beautiful and also the natural sorrounding. Good work .ganesh
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- Luis52
(12761)
- [2008-04-02 7:45]
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Hi Arjun.
Never seen this bird before. Nice colors en black and white. Great pose, fine image well framed. Interesting note.
Your friend
Luis52.
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- cysorz
![Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 32 W: 3 N: 65]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/s-n-g.gif)
(438) - [2008-06-19 3:45]
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Hi, Arjun!
Very nice black-and-white "fellow", in Poland one can find multicolored kingfishers only, but they are rather very rare. Nice photo.
Tadeusz
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 453 W: 58 N: 2111]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(6749)