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Kingfisher (Common Kingfisher)

Alcedo atthis

UK ConservationIrish ConservationModerate declineSmile

Distribution Britain 1,224 (-6.2%) Ireland 306 (-40.4%)
Numbers breeding: Britain 4,400 Ireland 1,700
European status: 52,500 (12% in Britain and Ireland =2)
British population trend: probably increasing (+22% WBS){+20%}
How likely are you to record it? 93 squares (2.1%) Ranked 106 [83]

The bright, electric flash of a passing Kingfisher is enough to brighten anyone's day. However the beauty and rarity of the bird was the reason for much destruction in the 19th century when there was a thriving trade in stuffed specimens, birds for the adornment of lady's hats and feathers for fly tying. The first protection laws led to some evidence of an increase at the turn of the century but the birds could not come back to areas where river pollution had killed off their food. They can breed very productively to make up for losses in severe winters. The big freeze of 1963 seems to have knocked them back and there are now about 50 10-km squares newly occupied north of the Forth/Clyde in the second Breeding Atlas. In Ireland they were found in many fewer squares during fieldwork for the second than for the first Breeding Atlas. However, apart from local losses, there have been gains in the industrial Pennines probably due to cleaning up pollution. Unsympathetic drainage work and poor water quality is bad for them. Global warming, modern ideas about drainage and better control of pollution could turn the population round in the future. Increases in prospect provided there are warm winters.

The following Bird On! picture is available:

Kingfisher (Watercolour by Robert Gillmor)

The following Bird On! sketch is available:

Kingfisher

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From The State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead


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