Common kingfisher in Polissia
Alcedo atthis
The kingfisher is a small bird with a big head, a long, sharp bill and a short tail. Its back is turquoise-blue, its breast and belly orange-red. In flight over the water the bird looks like a blue spark, and its call is a thin, piercing whistle.
The kingfisher lives on clean, slow rivers, streams and oxbows with steep earth banks. In Polissia it is seen on the Prypiat, Stokhid, Teteriv, Ubort, Desna and many smaller rivers.
The bird sits on a branch over the water, suddenly dives for a small fish and returns to the same branch. It nests in a burrow that it digs in a steep bank.
To see a kingfisher, paddle quietly in a boat or kayak, or sit on the bank near steep banks. Burrows must not be dug out, and the banks next to them must not be trampled.
When to see: April–October; some birds winter near ice-free rivers
Where it was seen in Polissia
Observations from the open scientific database GBIF since 1990.
More in “Birds”
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White stork
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Black stork
A secretive relative of the white stork that nests in Polissia's remote old forests near bogs and forest rivers.
Common crane
A large bird of Polissia's bogs, whose trumpeting call in spring is one of the most distinctive sounds of Polissia.