{"id":1460,"date":"2014-07-27T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2014-07-27T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T00:21:11","slug":"kingfishers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/1460","title":{"rendered":"Kingfishers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kingfishers are among my favourite birds as they combine my two interests of birds and fishing into one colourful package. In New Zealand we have only one species, the Sacred Kingfisher, which is also present in Australia. They can be challenging to photograph well as they are \u00a0very observant, hunt in open areas with little cover and don&#8217;t tolerate approach well. On our recent trip to Northland we had a couple of opportunities to sit and watch them hunting and managed a few decent images. We had been hoping for Reef Heron pictures as we had seen one on the day we arrived and so staked out the area repeatedly but never saw the heron again. Instead we got to observe a number of Kingfishers about their daily routine and managed some nice pictures which was an unexpected bonus.<\/p>\n<p>In New Zealand the\u00a0Kingfishers are\u00a0altitudinal migrants, moving to higher altitudes in summer when terrestrial invertebrates are more common and descending to the coast and estuaries in winter where they prey on marine invertebrates. \u00a0We were based in Paihia so were watching them at the mouth of the Waitangi River where it drains into the Bay of Islands. Being observational hunters, the Kingfishers choose an elevated perch and then scan the surrounds for movement before diving down onto their prey. In this situation they would choose a slightly elevated rock and look for the movement of \u00a0crabs on the mudflats or rocky shingle. On seeing a prey item they streak down and capture it and then return to their perch where they batter it on the rock before swallowing. For more information on kingfishers see <a title=\"N birdsonline kingfisher\" href=\"http:\/\/nzbirdsonline.org.nz\/species\/sacred-kingfisher\" target=\"_blank\">NZBirdsOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The first image shows a bird with a crab captured from the mudflats in late afternoon after we had lost sunlight. The second bird was hunting over cleaner shingle and rock so has a nice clean bill. This was another occasion where the extra cropping allowed by the D800 36Mp sensor is very useful, as even with a 500mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter it is not possible to approach close enough for a frame-filling composition in this environment.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1463\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1463\" style=\"width: 621px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/KingfisherCrab_D807770-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1463\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/KingfisherCrab_D807770-web.jpg?resize=621%2C414&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sacred Kingfisher with Crab 1\/500s f5.6 ISO 800\" width=\"621\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/KingfisherCrab_D807770-web.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/KingfisherCrab_D807770-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1463\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sacred Kingfisher with Crab 1\/500s f5.6 ISO 800<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1462\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1462\" style=\"width: 622px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kingfisher_D807910-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1462\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kingfisher_D807910-web.jpg?resize=622%2C415&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sacred Kingfisher 1\/2500s f5.6 ISO 800\" width=\"622\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kingfisher_D807910-web.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kingfisher_D807910-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1462\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sacred Kingfisher 1\/2500s f5.6 ISO 800<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kingfishers are among my favourite birds as they combine my two interests of birds and fishing into one colourful package. In New Zealand we have only one species, the Sacred Kingfisher, which is also present in Australia. They can be challenging to photograph well as they are \u00a0very observant, hunt in open areas with little [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","category-birds","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kingfishers - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/1460\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kingfishers - WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kingfishers are among my favourite birds as they combine my two interests of birds and fishing into one colourful package. In New Zealand we have only one species, the Sacred Kingfisher, which is also present in Australia. 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A visit some years back had given the opportunity for decent Banded Rail, Kingfisher and White-faced Heron photos. One of the heron photos Edin took began her competition winning streak with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bathing Kingfisher","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BathingKingfisher_DSC8084-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BathingKingfisher_DSC8084-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BathingKingfisher_DSC8084-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/BathingKingfisher_DSC8084-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10294,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10294","url_meta":{"origin":1460,"position":1},"title":"Tawharanui Kingfisher","author":"tony","date":"August 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher launching from flax perch A bonus from our trip to Tawharanui was the opportunity to photograph Kingfishers as well as the Brown Teal\/Pateke. New Zealand has one native kingfisher, the Sacred Kingfisher\/Kotare (Todiramphus sanctus), which also occurs in Australia, New Caledonia, Loyalty, Kermadec, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D5C_8727-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8183,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/8183","url_meta":{"origin":1460,"position":2},"title":"Sacred Kingfisher","author":"tony","date":"August 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I am particularly fond of Kingfishers but in New Zealand we only have one, the Sacred Kingfisher. \u00a0This species also occurs in Australia along with a number of other kingfishers including their iconic Kookaburras. They are generally quite wary and being small and difficult to approach closely are difficult to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Kingfisher_DSC8950-web-2.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Kingfisher_DSC8950-web-2.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Kingfisher_DSC8950-web-2.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Kingfisher_DSC8950-web-2.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10459,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10459","url_meta":{"origin":1460,"position":3},"title":"Little Waihi Kingfishers","author":"tony","date":"September 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher returning to his hunting perch with a juvenile Flounder. After my recent posts featuring Kingfishers from Tawharanui and Whangateau, I thought I would share a more local venue that I like to visit for Kingfishers in the winter. Little Waihi is a relatively short trip from home and is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kingfisher-D85_7485-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9256,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9256","url_meta":{"origin":1460,"position":4},"title":"Pounawea","author":"tony","date":"September 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Catlins River including Catlins Lake is a fantastic bird habitat so was an obvious place to explore during our visit to the area. Pounawea is an excellent place to access the estuary and birdlife for photography. We came across it while exploring and ended up staying for a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"South Island Pied Oystercatcher\/ Torea","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/SIPO_DSC4144-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/SIPO_DSC4144-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/SIPO_DSC4144-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/SIPO_DSC4144-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10315,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10315","url_meta":{"origin":1460,"position":5},"title":"Whangateau Kingfishers","author":"tony","date":"August 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Kingfisher\/Kotare Having enjoyed some good opportunities with Kingfishers at Tawharanui we ended our day with Whangateau Kingfishers. If the timing of the tide is suitable there is the opportunity to sit at the edge of the estuary while the Kingfishers hunt the flats for crabs from their perches in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kingfisher-D85_0726-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}