A Small Blue and Golden bird
We all may have grown up reading that ‘Kingfisher is a small fish-eating bird blah blah blah…’, from our school books or social media. This post is its version 2. O. When I toss the term ‘Kingfisher’, the first thing (Sometimes maybe the second thing :p) that comes to your mind is a small Blue and Gold coloured bird holding a fish. Truth to be told, there nearly exist 100 such varieties of these fellows that we have grouped into a general quota “Some color kuruvi”.
Though they look like tiny tots, they are one hell of smart predators. They make Copter flights, targets their prey like Arjuna and launch like his arrows ‘Zuummmmm….’. Sometimes I wonder whether the DC character Flash was inspired by them. They have this gift of keeping their head still while the rest of the body flutters around. You can even place a ‘Karagam’ over their head, they will never fail to make a great show. The Tamil name for kingfisher is Vichili. In old Tamil works of literature, the girls who used to dance with several pots on their heads and ropes are named Vichuli.
Kingfisher is not only king in fishing
Kingfishers are First-class stereotype breakers since most of its variety rarely feeds on fish. For a sample, The White-breasted Kingfishers are most of the time spotted in the woodlands (even in the Urban lands, Railway stations, Tower tops, Post walls etc) feeding on insects, dragonflies, rodents and even small birds.
Pied Kingfisher and I
I had a great experience with Pied Kingfisher in Perumbakkam, when I saw him for the first time, the beauty of the bird directly pierced my heart, it flew like a missile in the air and halted at exactly 12’o clock. He might be spotted his prey to fix his target it hovered exactly 30-sec in the mid-air and plunged into the water and came with a catch.
Chennai Variants KFs
Kingfishers swallow can able to swallow their prey twice their size. The three ‘Easy to spot’ Kingfishers in Chennai are Common-blue Kingfisher(small blue boy), White-breasted Kingfisher (Red lipstick mouthed) and Pied Kingfisher(black and white Vchilli). Even if I add 108 extra details to this blog, it cannot match the joy resulting from the live spectacular performance of these little boys. So what are you waiting for?? . Put on your shoes and go catch them live!
Content by Megha | Photos by Siluvai Amalan