You can’t mistake a kingfisher for anything else. They’re one of our most dazzling birds. Often the only glimpse you get is a flash of electric blue as they zip low and fast along a river or stream, or across a lake or marsh.
A better view, usually when the kingfisher perches on a low-hanging branch to scan the water for food, reveals a gorgeous combination of bright orange, white, that metallic blue back, and an almost iridescent blue-green.
Kingfishers eat small fish – mainly minnows and sticklebacks – and aquatic insects, and you might be lucky enough to see one dive to catch a meal. They need to eat their own weight in food every day, and they eat the fish headfirst while sitting on a perch, after bashing the fish repeatedly against the perch to kill it.
What often surprises people seeing them for the first time is their size – they’re smaller than you might expect, just 16–17cm long and only a little larger than a robin.
There are between 3,800 and 6,400 pairs in the UK and you can see them across Yorkshire. They nest in burrows in high-sided riverbanks. You’ll usually find them by fresh water, but some move to the coast or estuaries for the winter.
Try one of these reserves:
Extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis are taking their toll on local kingfisher populations. In fact, due to harsh winters and flooding, very few kingfishers survive more than one breeding season.
We're continuously improving our wetland reserves to create networks of healthy sites that better distribute flood water across our reserves (ensuring that rising water levels don’t impact threatened wildlife) and provide threatened species with sheltered places to find food during harsh winter months.
