You espy a flash of electric blue on the wing and follow it. It lands heavily on a tree branch, settles in, and makes a screeching sound that clashes with the more melodious chirpings of the white-eyes.

That’s the white-collared kingfisher. It’s a perch-and-wait kind of bird, staying motionless for minutes while it surveys its surroundings.

In flight, it’s marvelous to behold because of its resplendent color, especially against a pale blue sky. In repose, its dark mottled broad upper bill gives it a rather grim profile.

Because of the frequency of the grating strident calls it makes, I thought that were half a dozen or so in the foliage near our home. After reading up a bit about them (see links below), I now believe it was just this one pair inhabiting the area making all that noise.

The white-collared kingfisher eats, among other things, lizards, as you can see from the picture above.

Read more about it at this link to a National Library of Singapore site and this pretty comprehensive Wikipedia entry.

Posted in: Better Earth, Photo Gallery | | October 2009