Common kingfisher
Alcedo atthis
— Where the name comes from
Alcedo is the Latin for halcyon, the mythical bird that brooded on the sea in the days of calm — the “halcyon days”. Atthis was a girl of Lesbos sung by Sappho. The Italian “Martin” is probably a popular given name, as in many European languages.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Rollers and kingfishers
- Habitat
- Slow rivers, canals, ponds with steep banks
- Range
- Eurasia and North Africa
- Size
- 16–17 cm, 34–46 g
- Diet
- Fish eater
- Lifespan
- 2 years on average
— Characteristics
- 01
Dives from a perch and corrects for the refraction of the water before entering it.
- 02
Nests in a tunnel dug into the bank, up to a metre long.
- 03
Kills the fish by beating it against the branch, then swallows it head first.
— What sets it apart
The kingfisher’s blue is not a pigment. Its feathers hold spongy nanostructures that scatter the short wavelengths selectively: it is structural colour, as in a soap bubble. A powdered kingfisher is not blue. And the tapered shape of its bill, which enters water without a splash, was copied into the nose of the Japanese Shinkansen to get rid of the sonic boom on leaving a tunnel.
