Colours of Wildlife: Pied Kingfisher
Created | Updated Nov 22, 2015
Pied Kingfisher
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
Here you have a male Pied Kingfisher, Ceryle rudis. He's caught a little fish, poor thing! The female looks similar but only has a single black band, often broken in the middle, across her chest.
Hover-Fishing
Unlike the woodland kingfishers, such as the Greyheaded and Brownhooded kingfishers, the pied kingfisher really does fish most of the time! You're likely to see it, hovering in one place quite high over the water, rapidly beating its wings while scanning the water with its sharp eyes. When it spots a fish, it will plunge down with its long bill first, trying to catch it, not by spearing it, but by grabbing it in its bill. It is a quite successful hunter of small fish. This ability to hover over the water, makes it independent of waterside perches, which most other birds that fish from outside of the water (unlike birds that swim and dive to fish) use. Indeed, these kingfishers can sometimes be seen a great distance away from the shore, over the water of the huge lakes of the African rift valley, or even over the sea. Still, these kingfishers do use perches, if available. Often after catching a fish, they will return with it to a perch to beat it against it, to stun or kill it before swallowing it. They do this with larger fishes, being able to swallow the smaller ones directly after catching them.
Pied Kingfishers often occur together as couples. If using a perch, the male and female will usually perch close to each other. They're very vocal, their loud, high-pitched twittering betraying their presence. To neighbouring birds, they display and show their ownership of their territories by raising their crests. They also often roost in groups at night, perching in trees or sheltering in holes in steep riverbanks or cliffs. They regurgitate pellets with indigestible fish bones and scales at these roosting sites.
Helpful Partners
Another interesting social feature is that many times, a kingfisher couple will have an assistant! This assistant might be their own chick, usually a one-year-old male. But it might even be an unrelated kingfisher! This will also be a male, but one that doesn't have a female and a nest, or one that's failed at nesting. For some reason, this unrelated male kingfisher will decide to aid a couple. It might be that this helps it gain experience which will help it in the future when it does manage to nest and breed.
Whatever the case, the helper will aid the breeding couple, bringing them fish. There is sometimes a little show-fight before the helper relinquishes the fish to the breeding male or the female. Pairs living in areas with less abundant fish are more likely to wind up with a helper. Or sometimes more than one helper! In Kenya, up to four helpers have been recorded aiding a single breeding kingfisher couple. It is strange that the helpers are always male … indeed, it seems that in this kingfisher species, there are about twice as many adult males as females!
Helpers also help with 'mobbing' predators. This behaviour is for the sake of making the predator's presence known, so that it can't sneak up on unsuspecting birds. The birds will call loudly, circle over the predator and swoop and dive at it, often managing to chase it away.
Another conspicuous kind of behaviour is where breeding couples and their helpers will join with one or two other nesting groups in a strange display. They chase each other through the air, calling and chattering, then land and do a little dance, turning to each other while raising their wings, sometimes mock-fighting, pecking at each other's bills or wings.
Like other kingfishers, pied kingfishers breed in holes. They excavate these themselves in steep riverbanks, using their bills to peck, and once the tunnel is deep enough, they enter it and scrabble loose earth backward and out with their feet. The tunnel can be as long as 2 m/7'. The clutch can be from one to seven eggs, most often five. While most kingfisher nests rapidly become foul and filthy with droppings and fish remains, the nests of these kingfishers are remarkably clean. The baby kingfisher chicks themselves keep the nests clean, digging out dirty earth from the walls and floor of the nesting chamber with their beaks, which their parents then work out of the nests and tunnels when they enter and exit.
Common Kingfishers
Thankfully, pied kingfishers are not at all threatened. They are among the most abundant kingfisher species in the world. They're found all over sub-Saharan Africa, and conspicuous where they occur. They also occur in Iraq and in southern and eastern Asia, from India eastward to China. They have benefited in some places from human-created lakes and the stocking of these with fish. They're not seen as a nuisance, and in some areas of Africa are tamed and kept as pets.
