CanalCuttings - Your FREE online-world British Inland Waterways, Narrowboat, River Cruiser, Canal Boat Magazine, Info Source and Britain's & Narrowboat Holiday Guide.

Over 500 Pages of Information and Features about canals and their usage - We're not just a Narrowboat Magazine. The website includes River and Inland Waterways information.

Naturewatch - Kingfishers - Birds Along The Waterways

The UK Kingfisher's Latin name is Alcedo atthis in the Family of Kingfishers (Alcedinidae) - Alcedo atthis, is The Common Kingfisher, also known as Eurasian Kingfisher or River Kingfisher,

According to the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) there are an estimated number of between 4,800 and 8,000 pairs of resident UK Kingfishers.

It always excites me to see kingfishers as we cruise the UK inland navigable waterways. So much so that my wife will often hear me yell "bluebird!" as my brain seems to be too slow to recall 'kingfisher', but she knows what I mean by now.

The UK kingfisher bird is an unmistakable bright blue and orange bird that fly rapidly, low over water, and hunt fish from canal and riverside perches. I have seen them hovering momentarily above the water's surface once or twice.

Although UK kingfishers are widespread actually sighting one seems to be a rarity. Kingfishers are only found by still or slow flowing water such as lakes, canals and rivers in lowland areas. I have read though that, in winter, some UK kingfishers move to river estuaries and the coast.

You may even be lucky enough to see a kingfisher at a garden pond, if of a suitable size, looking for an exotic 'takeaway'!

You can definitely see UK kingfisher birds all year round usually hunting for their staple diet of fish and aquatic insects along the canal system.

In 2009 we saw dozens of kingfishers, mainly on the Shropshire Union Canal, north of the M54 bridge and south of Wheaton Aston, but my camera only manages to capture a bright blue and orange flash as the bird passes or a smudge of blue and orange in a bush!

This is probably my personal best photo of a Kingfisher. Taken with my little Nikon Coolpix 7900 off the stern of our moving narrowboat on the Shropshire Union Canal - We followed this bird through the cutting south of and through the 81m long Cowley Tunnel at Gnosall, Staffordshire (MAP). This is one of the reasons we live on our narrowboat!