Kingfisher

This blog has been a bit overrun recently by hornets, dragonflies, foxes and so on, so it is high time for a change.  I had a great time watching this kingfisher from the hide in my local nature reserve yesterday.   It is a female (orange colour on the underside of the bill) and a juvenile (dark feet and white tip to the bill).

She was fishing quite successfully, making several catches including small fish

and what I think were probably damselfly larvae.

The kingfisher was flitting from perch to perch, in very bright sunlight but varying the angle of the light.  When the low orange sunlight was nearly behind the bird a lot of her feathers looked black.

Here the side in the sun is black whereas that in the shade shows more blue.

When she moved a bit more into the sun there was more blue.

In full sun the colours changed dramatically.

Other things change as she moves.  Here the back appears as a bright blue band.

Here there are three stripes down the back.

Although she was comfortable with the presence of people in the hide she was constantly looking out for danger from sparrowhawks.  Fortunately none appeared.