Common perhaps, but how arresting the kingfisher is! The bright hues suggest the bird has been dabbling in a palette of rich colours. But to begin with a little something more about its name than just the act it suggests.
Ancient Greeks called the bird ‘halkyons’, from ‘hals’ which means ‘sea’ and ‘kyons’ which stands for ‘conceiving’. The term originated from the ancient belief that kingfishers nested in the open sea. The Gods, it is said, so favoured the ‘halkyon’ that they even calmed the waters for them at nesting time. This belief generated the term ‘halcyon’ which means peace and tranquillity.
Not many perhaps know that there are more than 80 kinds of kingfishers, most of them found in the tropics. There is the pied kingfisher, Himalayan pied kingfisher, white-breasted kingfisher and the brown-headed stork-billed kingfisher to name a few. There is yet another, the black-capped kingfisher, called so, because of the velvety black cap that crowns it.
Cries vary from species to species, each one having a distinctive cry. The Bird Book describes the pied kingfisher’s cry as a “sharp, cheery, chirruk, chirruk” and of course we are all familiar with the common kingfisher’s sharp ‘chichee chichee’. And if you have a penchant for identifying birds by their cries, the brown-headed stork-billed kingfisher emits a raucous and explosive laugh that goes, ‘ke-ke-ke-ke’.
The kingfisher’s strident notes generally precede its appearance and where fish-filled watery expanses are found, there the bird certainly will be. Wells are favourite haunts, fare not too difficult to dive-catch. To make things even easier, the kingfishers had nested in cavities along the inner circumference of our gargantuan well in our suburban home of long ago. It was a scene to behold, the birds darting in for tilapias which we had introduced into the well, and returning speedily to settle on the wall and gorge on the catch!
Legend and lore add much colour to many that belong to the bird kingdom. It is said that the kingfisher was originally drab, but on leaving Noah’s Ark, the bird flew straight into an evening sky spangled with twilight hues. Chestnut, scorch and cerulean blue are all crepuscular shades.
And to end, as I began on a mythological note, Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, married Ceyx, son of Hesperus. When Ceyx lost his life in a shipwreck, stricken with grief, Alcyone threw herself into the stormy waters. This devotion so moved the Gods that they changed the lovers into a pair of beautiful kingfishers.
Kalyani Davidar
Email: KalyaniDavidar@live.in