Here are some photographs of a belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) in Idaho by reader Stephen Barnard, who notes, “These birds are extremely difficult to photograph in flight. They’re small, fast, and very spooky.”
Interpretation by Professor Ceiling Cat, with apologies to WS.
I.
In the shadowed rivers of I-da-ho
Nothing was moving
Save a lazy trout—and the eye of a kingfisher
II.
A man and a woman are one,
A man and a woman and a kingfisher are two—
Unless they eat it.
III.
I do not know which to prefer:
The blue freedom of a kingfisher,
Or the opprobrium of Daniel Dennett.
IV.
They are wary then, and fly like quicksilver;
So let the camera affix its beam:
For the kingfisher is the emperor of the stream.
V.
Beauty is momentary in the mind—
The fitful tracing of a portal:
But in this bird it is immortal.
As always, great Barnard photos!
As a new thing, great interpretation! I think I’d pick the kingfisher over the opprobrium. But perhaps there is s story forthcoming that will illuminate the choice?
frtzbrfl! Forgot the damn check box.
I’ve been trying to get decent in-flight photos of these birds for a long time. Finally got lucky. 700mm, handheld, f/8, ISO 1250, 1/4000 or 1/8000 depending on which photo.
I like the last one the best – you don’t see pictures of birds with their wings in that way while gliding.
Yeah, the last one is the best of some really good pics.
These kingfishers are so small and light and powerful for their size that one wing beat sends them on an upward trajectory. When fishing they’ll hover over the creek, nearly stationary until they see the prey, then they dive.
Yes, they seem to bob up and down quickly when flying, which makes these photos all the more impressive. Really good.
Nor does one usually see sky in-between closed beak parts. Truly amazing.
Tell me about kingfishers.
No matter what lens I have on the camera, they know and stay just out of effective range.
They always remind me of a bluejay on steroids, although I think our local population (SW Ontario) must be a different species than the one in those fabulous photos.
There are three species of kingfishers in North America, and two of them are found only in the southwest, so yours must be belted.
The spookiness of birds has always perplexed me. Why should they fly away so quickly, as if we might suddenly eat them like a giant frog would – snatching them out of the trees using a long sticky tongue?
We can’t do that. No big animal I know of can do anything like that. Yet many birds act as if we can. It can’t be because of guns, can it? People never hunted kingfishers, or indigo buntings (as if guns have been around long enough to have shaped bird behavior anyway).
A very good question, and I cannot think of a convincing answer. Of course we often come across birds that are wary of our approach, and they simply move away to keep a minimal distance, but they are clearly very wary of people. Other birds will simply book it, like you say.
Birds are generally tolerant of large grazers, so that somewhat deepens the mystery.
Until recently, people (including John James Audubon) used to blast away at anything that moved and was within range, and in some places in North America they still do. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few hundred generations of natural selection has bred for spooky behavior. Also consider that birds learn from their parents. There could be a “cultural” effect.
This seems reasonable. The behavior could well have a genetic component. So we may have selected for skittishness in birds, as we selected for quieter rattlesnakes in the southwest.
It seems reasonable when applied to ducks or partridges, birds that have been systematically hunted, but not to indigo buntings and king fishers who have only been attacked by rare collectors.
I don’t see how near universal spookiness can be explained this way.
A few anecdotes:
Birds and mammals in very remote areas tend to be less spooky. I’ve had warblers land on my head while I was washing dishes at a remote lake in the Sierras. The boobies on Christmas Island will let you walk right up to them. Anecdotes abound. We’ve all heard about the dodos. On the flip side, birds in urban areas get habituated to humans. I once saw hundreds of pigeons literally cover a young girl holding a bag of corn in Trafalgar Square. (She freaked out.) I had a gray squirrel run up my pants leg on a university quad, after my sandwich. (I freaked out.)
I think you underestimate how bloodthirsty rural people with guns can be. They’ll shoot anything just for target practice. I used to do it when I was a child, which I very much regret now. Maybe there’s no deliberate hunting for indigo buntings or kingfishers, but they’re in danger from a goober with a shotgun.
Sentiments (and the law) have changed recently. I’ve seen it in my neighbors and myself. Maybe birds will become less spooky.
Good points. I used to target all birds with my BB gun, too (and regret it, too).
Yeah, the urban crows are cocky but the crows where I live are so weary that if they catch sight of movement in your house, they take off.
The birds on my place are less spooky of pickup trucks than of people on foot. I think that’s because they’re used to the farm hands moving the irrigation wheel lines and hand lines.
We had a lake place in northern Minnesota when I was growing up.
The crows are incredibly smart and alert. You could walk around as much as you please and the most they would do was cackle at you.
But take one step out of the door with a gun in your hand — gone, isntantly.
This could be repeated as many times as you pleased (after a fair time for them to come back and settle down).
I got a chill when I saw the quoting of Peter Quince at the Clavier in #5 above – that triplet is one of my favorites!
Also a big favorite from Wallace Stevens is the last four lines to “Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man,” not one of Stevens’ better known poems. I had to explicate it as punishment for missing an assignment in college, and I’ve been grateful ever since! It goes like this (from memory):
“It may be that the ignorant man, alone
Has every chance to mate his life with life
That is the sensual, pearly spouse, the life
That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.”
Tremendous captures, Stephen! One of my favorite birds.
Got a female hanging around, too?
There are some pairs hanging around.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/110292855@N05/13055958684/lightbox/
One of my favorite birds: The Belted Kingfisher. I love their raucous calls.
Lovely photos Stephen! And yes, very hard to catch in flight!