h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Common Kingfishers - A87964375
Author: SashaQ - happysad - U9936370

Here is a little Entry about one of my favourite birds - it is always a treat to see a Kingfisher perching nearby.

I had another read through and the only thing I was puzzled by was the mention of a third eyelid. Do they have a second eyelid too or, if not, what is the difference between a second and third eyelid?

<BB<

Thanks for reading

Yes, eyes have upper eyelids, and lower eyelids, so the nictitating membrane of Kingfishers, cats, etc is the third eyelid, but I put it into quote marks to indicate that nictitating membrane is the official term

I also made a tweak to indicate that Kingfishers do not just eat fish, as their name suggests, but they also fish for the fish so Kings are not at risk

Very interesting! I didn't know kookaburras were kingfishers. Thanks for the read!

Thank you

A good Entry!
As far as I remember they sometimes make artificial nests for kingfishers to help them breeding.

Good entry, Sasha.

You might like to add something about the phrase "halcyon days". Halcyon is the Greek for kingfisher and these peaceful and happy days of times past are connected with the kingfisher. You can look it up.

Some choice of words suggestions:

the fish bones and other indigestible parts are ejected in pellets from the bird's beak
-- this sounds a bit odd. I'd say they cough them up and spit them out.

where up to seven eggs are laid by the female
-- I'd prefer the more active:

where the female lays up to seven eggs

Some nitpicks:

It's normal not to capitalise the names of animal species, even when they are the subject of the Entry, so you should have "common kingfishers" and "house sparrow-sized".
(The scientific species name is capitalised on the first word, as you have done.)

three to four weeks after they hatched -->
three to four weeks after they hatch

G

Thanks for reading Gnomon

I have added mention of Halcyon Days

I have treated the subject of the Entry as a proper name, so I kept the capitalisation there, but I removed the capitalisation in the other cases

I made the other tweaks, too - 'cough' sounds like it comes from the lungs so I didn't say that, but I hope the sentence is clearer now.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Thank you

Congratulations!