Like shooting fish in a barrel: How a photographer coaxed a kingfisher to pose for the camera



Perched in a tree by the side of the pool, the kingfisher's beady eye is focused on just one thing - her lunch.

In a blinding flash of cobalt-blue and orange-chestnut she launches herself like a torpedo into the water to seize one of the minnows that are swimming there.

Then she beats it against the side of her perch before swallowing it whole and turning her attention on the second course - another minnow.

I'm coming in..This stunning close-up shows the kingfisher diving into the tank to get at the fish

Gotcha! Perched on a branch by the side of the pool, the kingfisher's beady eye is focused on just one thing - lunch

KINGFISHER FACTFILE Latin name: Alcedo atthis



Size: 6.5in

British population: Between 4,800 and 8,000 breeding pairs.

Although the bird's bright blue and orange plumage is common to both male and female, a female can be distinguished by its reddish lower mandible (lower jaw).

When a kingfisher dives on its prey, its beak is opened and its eyes closed by a third eyelid. The bird is effectively blindfolded as it catches the fish.

On return to the perch, it repeatedly strikes the fish against the perch to kill it. Only then will the spines in the fins of some species such as sticklebacks relax to allow the bird swallow it, head first.

Each bird must eat at least its own bodyweight of fish each day.

Kingfishers used to be hunted for their plumage - so that the feathers could be used in hats.

The kingfisher is highly susceptible to long cold winters which have decimated the population. Floods also affect them badly because they cannot find fish.

A pair of kingfishers may rear three broods in a single season. As a result, numbers are soon replenished

Normally this blur of activity is almost impossible to capture on film because of its incredible speed and the sometimes murky nature of the water.

But in a remarkable relationship between man and bird, amateur naturalist Adrian Groves has managed to coax one of his local kingfishers to dive into a glass tank of minnows he has set on the riverbank so that he can record the action in fine detail.

'Ninety-nine per cent of people never get this close,' he said yesterday. 'But I am so fascinated by the birds, their beauty and their behaviour that I was determined to make a proper study.

'Kingfishers have a very poor survival rate, especially in winter, and this one gets to look very scrawny. I like to think that I'm not only ensuring her survival but drawing attention to the species as a whole.'

Mr Groves, 44, a coach driver, first spotted the kingfisher when he was out looking for buzzards and peregrine falcons near his home in South Dorset.

'It was about two years ago and I fell in love with the colours and the quick movements,' he said. 'The trouble is that they are such shy birds that it is difficult to get close which is why I hit on my plan.'

After getting permission from a landowner to carry out his experiment, Mr Groves set up his camouflaged tank of minnows at the water's edge which he knew was kingfisher territory.

He built a perch for the birds to sit on and operated his cameras remotely from some distance away.

He said: 'It took time for them to get used to it, but now they sometimes appear within minutes although I have sat there for four hours. I will wait all day because they are so fascinating.

'One comes and sits very close to me, almost like a robin. There's always something different happening and it is just fantastic to sit there and watch. I never get tired of it. There are so many different things about the kingfisher to learn.'



Pictured: Ady sets up to wait for the kingfisher.



