Killer Kingfisher

["Philip Veerman" <>]

I will repeat here a message I wrote to this list on 8-2-2000 called "Bill-snapping Sacred Kingfisher". Not as dramatic but somewhat related.

 

There are some comments on Bill-snapping along this line, so I'll add one that is also amusing. Several (about 6) years ago I had a Sacred Kingfisher in my backyard (Kambah ACT) for a day. At one stage it was bathing in the bird bath (a water dish on the ground on the middle of the lawn). A male Common Blackbird was fussing around it, hopping around flicking wings and giving clanking alarm call at point blank range. Some time later the Blackbird was in the bird bath in full ablution mode and the Sacred Kingfisher watched it for a while then when the Blackbird was facing away, the Kingfisher flew down from the clothes line, swooped down within a few cm of the Blackbird's head and snapped its beak as it passed by. I heard it from several metres away. The Blackbird fled the scene in panic. The Kingfisher just continued on to the nearby tree, watching the site. So yes this sounds anthropomorphic but true nonetheless.

 

Philip