kingfisher
With its iron-blue beak and chestnut-orange underbody, the common Kingfisher of Europe gives the first impression of this stark contrast of colors. And when it flew away, it left the impression of a piece of living jasper. If the legend is true and believable, then this bird was originally gray and autumnal, and it became colorful when it left Noah's Ark.
The common kingfisher in Europe is impressive, and at the other end of the world, there is also a bird similar to the common kingfisher, small in size, with a sky blue color, that is, the Australian and New Guinea kingfisher. This beloved bird often lives lively in gardens and woodlands, inhabits trees, and eats ground animals. New Guinea and the nearby archipelago have the largest variety and variety of kingfishers, as well as abundant species in Africa and South Asia, while other species (almost all of them brightly coloured and eye-catching) are found in the Americas and hundreds of Scattered Pacific Islands.
1. Blue-breasted emerald; 2. White-bellied fish dog; 3. Amazon green fish dog. The richness of the kingfisher's coloring can be seen in these three species of birds, ranging from bright blue, green, and red to plain black and white.
Ambush predator
Form and function
Kingfishers inhabit forests, grasslands and water's edges, have bright plumage, are monocultural, and have more or less solitary tendencies. Most species live in the tropics, but one or two species in each subfamily are migratory birds, and their range extends to temperate regions. The more primitive species inhabit forests and are dominated by woodland-eating insects. More specialized species either use ambush methods to prey on small animals, or catch flying insects in the air, or forage for earthworms in the deciduous layer, or hunt birds or reptiles, or dive into deep water from perches or circling (especially spotted dogs).
Kingfishers, like other species of the order, have a large head, short neck, strong stature, short legs, weak fleshy feet, and are partially connected between the two and three toes. The beak is long, straight, and robust, and the beak of the insectivorous species is flat before and after, and the fish-eating species are left and right flat. The new Guinean spatula kingfisher has a short, thick tapered beak. Other species have a sharp dagger-like beak , although the adult red-headed kingfisher has a blunt beak ( a sharp and sharp beak for young birds ) . There are several kingfisher species that are not particularly closely related, all of which have only 3 toes, and the fourth toe is missing for unknown reasons. Body feathers and other features suggest that the three-toed species are closely related to some of the four-toed species in the genus Tritonic and Kingfisher, so the Three-toed Kingfisher is not a group of its own as previously thought.
Although kingfishers are diverse in color, they are generally dominated by blue and red. The shoulders and waist are usually shiny sky blue, the back and top of the head are dark, and the middle is separated by white or light neck feathers. The young birds of the emerald class have dull plumage and are significantly different from adult birds, while the young birds of other species are brightly colored, but still slightly inferior to adult birds. Geographical differences between species are small, and the conservatism of color evolution makes most of the relatives look very similar. Notable exceptions are the short three-toed kingfisher (a bird that exhibits a variety of different plumages between red and blue or yellow in the philippines to solomon islands), gray-headed jadeite from Africa, and blue jadeite from China. The latter two species, although kingfishers have a variety of colorations, are generally blue and red. The shoulders and waist are usually shiny sky blue, the back and top of the head are dark, and the middle is separated by white or light neck feathers. The young birds of the emerald class have dull plumage and are significantly different from adult birds, while the young birds of other species are brightly colored, but still slightly inferior to adult birds. Geographical differences between species are small, and the conservatism of color evolution makes most of the relatives look very similar. Notable exceptions are the short three-toed kingfisher (a bird that exhibits a variety of different plumages between red and blue or yellow in the philippines to solomon islands), gray-headed jadeite from Africa, and blue jadeite from China. Although the latter two species differ in appearance, their biochemical composition, biological properties, and geographic distribution all indicate that they originate from the same original species.
Conservation Status Mark Island jadeite is listed as endangered, and 11 species such as blue-capped jadeite are vulnerable.
Crowned kingfishers are sometimes mistaken for small kingfishers, but this bird has beautiful dark blue crown feathers (with black stripes), while small kingfishers do not have crown feathers. In addition, crested kingfishers live on the water's edge rather than woodland species.
Kingfishers that live on dry land are ambush-type predators, targeting small animals on the ground, while species that live near the water are experts in fishing. But either way, it has excellent vision. It's just that fish-eating species need to overcome 2 special visual problems, namely the refraction of light (which makes the prey appear closer to the water surface than it actually is) and the reflection of light (ripples and waves from the surface of the water). Kingfishers have a limited range of motion within their orbits, and they compensate for this deficiency by turning their entire head quickly and flexibly, searching for fast-moving prey. For example, the white-browed emerald can lock on to a small animal from 90 meters away. In addition, white-bellied fish dogs are sensitive to light close to ultraviolet light, which also helps them hunt.
All kingfishers have 2 concave retinal depressions in each eye, gathering a large number of photosensitive cone cells. Kingfishers' vision overlaps on the front, creating binocular vision. One of the fovea of each eye is used for binocular vision, and the other fovea is used to form a monocular field of vision on one side of the head. Experiments have shown that when the kingfisher fishes, it first finds the prey through the monocular fovea, and then adjusts the angle of the head to 60 ° (beak downward) as usual, while the head is slightly rotated, so that the image of the prey is formed on the binocular fovea of one or both eyes, so as to accurately calculate the distance of the prey. For example, the spotted fish dog can lock on to fish 2 meters deep under the water surface, and then dive into the water from a height of 2 to 3 meters. The moment the ordinary kingfisher enters the water, it will rotate its wings backward around the shoulder joint, while the instantaneous membrane (a layer of translucent skin) moves back and forth to protect the eyes. Kingfishers enter the water like arrows, slow down their wings at the moment they catch their prey with their upper and lower beaks, then shrink their necks, turn around, exit the water, fly into the air, and usually return along the same path.
After being plunged into the water, the eyes of the common kingfisher are protected by a membrane, which means that it relies on touch to decide when to bite its prey during the subsequent hunting process.
Overall, kingfishers do not have a direct conflict with humans. As fish-eating birds, only a few species are sometimes persecuted as pest birds in human fishing areas. Often, they are respected, even praised, by people. But in the past, large numbers of common kingfishers were shot down or netted, and people used their feathers as buoys for fishing. Earlier , it was thought ( at least in Britain ) that keeping a dried kingfisher carcass in the house would protect against lightning and moths , and as a result this superstitious belief led to the killing of many kingfishers. Today, the harm to kingfishers is more incidental than intentional, including freshwater pollution and habitat changes, especially rainforests. Of course, birdcatchers have also caught a lot of kingfishers. In Jadinga, Assam, India, large migratory common kingfishers, stork-billed emeralds, red emeralds, and three-toed kingfishers are attracted to death by night beacons in villages (and are likely to be eaten). In some Mediterranean countries, many kingfishers die in nets, guns and lime because they are not hunted.
The beak of the kingfisher is adapted to different foods
1. The beak of the shovel-billed kingfisher is short and tapered; 2. The strong beak of the laughing kingfisher helps to prey on lizards; 3. The small kingfisher's pointed beak makes it a typical fish-eating species.
There are few kingfisher species that are in a hurry, however, there are a large number of species limited to small islands and archipelagos in the rainforest or the Pacific, meaning that their fate depends heavily on the protection of their habitats. A subspecies of Tudao Emerald lived on the island of Manareva in the central Pacific until 1922 and is now almost certainly extinct; There is also a species of kingfisher that is currently in a hurry, however, there are a large number of species limited to the rainforest or on small islands and archipelagos in the Pacific, meaning that their fate depends heavily on the protection of their habitats. A subspecies of Tudao Emerald lived on the island of Manareva in the central Pacific until 1922 and is now almost certainly extinct; There is also a subspecies found only on the island of Neo in the Tuamotu Islands, with only a few hundred in number, and is classified as a vulnerable species. Another threatened species, the lesser-known whiskered emerald, is confined to the mountain forests of Bougainville and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, with an estimated total of less than 1,000, most likely 250.