The Kingfisher

摘要

For many," the usual sighting of a kingfisher is limited to an occasional and sudden flash of iridescent blue as a bird flies, fast and straight, along a river or a stream. If we are lucky enough, a bird may be seen perched on a branch overhanging slow running water, waiting for an unwary fish to come within range. In Scotland, the kingfisher is an infrequent sight, except over parts of the south where its presence along the catchments of most of our river systems is now well established. Even further north, birds are seen quite predictably along some catchments, though the breeding range still only extends as far as Ross-shire (Gibbons et al, 1993). The UK population is thought to number about 4,300-7,100 pairs (Baker et al, 2006), with the much smaller Scottish population numbering about 185-308 pairs, though more recent evaluation suggests that this may be a considerable underestimate and may be double that at about 300-450 pairs (Forrester et al, 2007). However, much of the published information on kingfishers in Scotland is now a bit dated and we are awaiting the publication of the new BTO breeding and wintering Atlas, covering field work over the period 2007-2011. It has been suggested that, since the last Atlas (Gibbons et al, 1993) there have been some further gains in terms of 10km occupancy, with some losses in southern and central Scotland. The recently published North-east Bird Atlas (Francis and Cook, 2011) has shown a similar picture, with modest gain as well as further consolidation within the existing range.