BANG!!

[miriam_e]

It sounded like someone threw a ball against my window. I knew what it was and went out to investigate. There, on the ground below the window, looking very zonked out, was a gorgeous little kingfisher. It would have fit in the palm of my hand.

The eyes are almost completely closed. The white patch where the eye would be is the eyelid. You can see the barest gleam of shiny black eye at the top of the white eyelid. The eyelid closes upwards, it seems.

I took a bunch of pictures without approaching too closely, then left the poor little guy to itself. It would be safe there. About an hour later I went out and peeked around the corner. The kingfisher was still there, but now had sufficient wits to fly away as if fired from a gun. These little guys move like they are rocket-assisted... hence the loud bang when this poor thing hit the window. I hope it recovers well. At least with all the rains lately it should have no problem catching food.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I had no idea they were blue.

Huh.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

In a funny way they aren't -- they are brown, but interference effects in the fine structure of the feathers reflects the blue light, and I think causes the other colors to destructively interfere. I don't totally understand it yet, but it has been proposed as the basis for far more efficient, non-fading colors than our current habit of using toxic dyes for everything. The feather colors apparently use a similar effect to the colors seen on the shiny side of a CD. Butterflies do the same thing.

[sharpblonde.livejournal.com]

He's gorgeous!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yes. I didn't realise there were kingfishers here, though it makes sense, given the wide creek in the valley.

There would be even more birds if most of the valley hadn't been cleared for farming decades ago. The bit of land I live on is like an oasis in the middle of it all.

My parents showed with their block of land that it only takes about 20 years to turn grassy paddocks into forest if you know what you are doing. They have incredible numbers of birds there now. I'd love to have the money to buy up this whole valley and turn it into forest.

[beyondfake-0.livejournal.com]

Aww poor guy. Do you know if he ended up okay? He's a gorgeous little thing.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the little cutie since, but that isn't surprising -- kingfishers would tend to hang around the creek at the bottom of the valley instead of up here. I hope it fared okay. By the way it took off I'd say it recovered pretty well. The tip of the beak looked a little damaged, so I hope it suffered no lasting effects from the impact.

Certainly is gorgeous.
There are a lot of very pretty birds around here. The king parrots especially drip color and some of the beetles are mind boggling. I took some photos the other night of a large spider that wandered into my bathroom to die -- amazingly beautiful. And of course there are the green tree frogs with their big, dark, innocent eyes in that smart, handsome face -- body bright green above, creamy below.