A female Eurasian (Common) Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis, with a fish which its mate caught, passed over to her, then flew off. They were well into the breeding cycle and were constantly flying in and out of their nest hole.
I was on a specialist wildlife photography holiday at Ultima Frontiera, in north-east Romania on the border with Ukraine. I was sitting in a small, pop-tent hide right opposite the Kingfisher’s nest-hole. The good thing about Eurasian Kingfishers is that they ‘Shrieeeeeek’ as they fly towards the nest, letting the bird inside know it’s time to get out, so when looking through the restricted field of view of a telephoto lens, you get some warning that a bird is coming.
Of course, with nature nothing is predictable, so sometimes the arriving bird didn’t fly straight into the nest-hole but onto a nearby branch or twig first, sometimes directly over my head, where it could be heard but not seen. I saw, but effectively missed photographing the handover of this fish as it was at a very acute angle, and it took me ‘too many’ seconds to get my tripod adjusted so that I could get my camera ‘on to’ the birds. However, I managed to get this photo of the female eating the fish.
This image is copyright © Liz Leyden, all rights reserved.
My image of a European Kingfisher, aka Common Kingfisher, is for sale as wall art or as various home or personal accessories at Pixels.com.
