Sacred Kingfishers are noticed extra simply across the townsite of Broome throughout our winter months and I’ve been observing them near residence for a couple of weeks now. Now we have been fortunate sufficient to have one in our backyard over the previous few days and it was rigorously balanced on our fake energy line. For the time being we’re nonetheless experiencing chilly chilly mornings with a requirement to put on socks for a change! Our morning walks are all the time attention-grabbing with the massive number of birds which can be across the native space and a day stroll typically produces a special mixture of hen species.
We don’t all the time enterprise out too early when it’s chilly, however the blue sky makes for an awesome backdrop and the dearth of warmth haze makes it simpler for hen pictures. Now we have our route that we take that gives some nice birds as you may see right here and right here. There are numerous Hakea macrocarpa flowering alongside the firebreak, so we proceed to benefit from the Honeyeaters and different birds feasting on the flowers.
I lastly bought the chance to take a whole lot of pictures of a Sacred Kingfisher perched excessive up on a useless tree near Cygnet Park. I had not truly anticipated it to remain for lengthy and I took extra pictures than I anticipated, which is okay, however then I’ve to determine which to share with you! I used to be fortunate sufficient to get fairly a couple of angles of the Sacred Kingfisher.
Here’s a little bit of an “motion shot” when a Black Kite got here too near it and it stretched its physique upwards.
The Sacred Kingfisher then returned to its regular pose and was little doubt having fun with the heat from the early morning solar! I used to be capable of stroll across the base of the tree and seize the sunshine on its feathers.
Sacred Kingfisher
Sacred Kingfishers are most typical across the coastal areas of mainland Australia, however they seem like fairly nomadic as nicely. They are often discovered fairly a good distance from the coast as you may see right here. We regularly observe Sacred Kingfishers alongside river methods as nicely they usually drop down into the water to catch small fish and return to a department to feed.
The one different Kingfisher species that we additionally observe inland round Broome is the Pink-backed Kingfisher, which I wrote about a couple of years in the past now. Each species are an analogous dimension and might be noticed in the identical location, so it pays to watch rigorously whenever you observe a “kingfisher”.