Photo credit: Pablo Silber 2022

Any bird can become a spark bird: a bird that fills the viewer’s heart with joy and ignites a passion for the natural world. Nature writing is peppered with references to birds that change lives. The humble Sacred Kingfisher with its dumpy body, long bill and short legs was the gateway bird for this particular nature lover.

The Kingfisher family traditionally fishes – it is all in the name – although in Australia most of our kingfishers are not strictly traditional.

True Kingfishers, which live and breed only in wetlands, dams and creeks, no longer live in Kurilpa (the Azure Kingfisher has visited the peninsula just once in the last 10 years), but we do host the Sacred Kingfisher year-round.

This blue-green-backed and white- or buff-fronted bird perches over water and bobs its head up and down before darting down to snaffle its meal of a mangrove crab, small fish or lizard. Its head is capped with the same green-blue of its back, and there is a white or buff-coloured collar that delineates its back from its head. Its eyes sit in a dark blaze that flows into its bill, and its eyebrow is usually buff and does not extend beyond its eye.

Sacred Kingfishers are generally silent but make a machinegun-like “Kik-kik-kik-kik-kik” sound pre-breeding and also during the breeding season. They bore out their nest either in tunnels high in riverbanks or in arboreal termite mounds high up in trees, laying three to six eggs. However, they also nest in hollows in mature trees (See Derby Street, Highgate Hill). In the breeding season, some birds will move into the bush to breed, as small creeks lack the resources to raise young. Luckily, the Brisbane River in 4101 provides enough to support several breeding pairs.

In Kurilpa, we can see the Sacred Kingfisher fishing on mudflats, from overhanging branches and pontoons from South Bank around the peninsula to Dauphin Terrace and beyond. Look for a flash of blue wings and the sound of its “kik” call in spring.

For more information: https://www.australiaswonderfulbirds.com.au/kingfishers