Pied Kingfisher

Description:

Had come out fishing. After 2 attempts he was lucky. This kingfisher has a black mask, a white supercilium and black breast bands. The crest is neat and the upperparts are barred in black. Males have a narrow second breast-band while females have a single broken breast band. This kingfisher feeds mainly on fish, although it will take crustaceans and large aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae. It usually hunts by hovering over the water to detect prey and diving vertically down bill-first to capture fish. When not foraging, they have a straight rapid flight and have been observed flying at nearly 32 mph. They can deal with prey without returning to a perch, often swallowing small prey in flight, and so can hunt over large water bodies or in estuaries that lack perches that are required by other kingfishers

Habitat:

Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary (marshland)