Ajay..
The recce and the attack!
Pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) at the Sholinganallur-Perumbakkam marsh, Chennai
Wishing you all lovely people a great new year!!
Let me begin the year with pics of one of my most favourite avian sights; one that I can never get bored of. The pied kingfisher is the largest bird in the world that can truly hover in still air. It hovers high above the water surface looking for fish, and dives once it locks on a target. Timing is everything, as the fish, sensing the ripples caused when the beak touches the water surface, would begin to flee. The kingfisher has roughly 1/50th of a second to beat the fish's reaction time!! Though I've seen in a BBC video that the bird has to keep the head still while hovering to conserve energy, I've seen far too many birds that twist and turn in all angles in the hover.
The recce and the attack!
Pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) at the Sholinganallur-Perumbakkam marsh, Chennai
Wishing you all lovely people a great new year!!
Let me begin the year with pics of one of my most favourite avian sights; one that I can never get bored of. The pied kingfisher is the largest bird in the world that can truly hover in still air. It hovers high above the water surface looking for fish, and dives once it locks on a target. Timing is everything, as the fish, sensing the ripples caused when the beak touches the water surface, would begin to flee. The kingfisher has roughly 1/50th of a second to beat the fish's reaction time!! Though I've seen in a BBC video that the bird has to keep the head still while hovering to conserve energy, I've seen far too many birds that twist and turn in all angles in the hover.