Kingfisher Facts | Wildlife

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

There are 87 different species of kingfisher in the world
The largest kingfisher in the world is Australia’s laughing kookaburra. It weighs up to 500gm, or 15 times as much as our bird .
Severe winters can lead to as many as 90% of Britain’s kingfishers perishing.
The kingfisher doesn’t have a song, though it does have a distinctive flight call, a shrill whistle
In the winter, a kingfisher needs to eat around 15 or 16 minnows a day.
Because of the high mortality of young, kingfishers usually have two or three broods a year, with as many as 10 in a brood.
The brilliant blue of the kingfisher’s back feathers are not the result of pigment, but the result of light striking specially modified layers of feather cells.