Common Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis

[dolina]

Common Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis by Paolo Dolina, on Flickr


Beautiful little blue-and-orange bird with a long, pointed bill. Often rather shy and inconspicuous despite bright plumage. Found along rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds—almost any fresh or brackish habitat with small fish. Often perches quietly in trees over water; most often seen in very fast low flight as a turquoise flash over the water, usually flying away. Easily detected once its high, shrill whistled call is learned, even if the bird itself is hidden. The only small blue kingfisher over much of its range.


Source: https://ebird.org/species/comkin1?siteLanguage=en_PH


Location: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntinlupa


This was one of the first birds I photographed within the 1st 3 months of getting into birding. And it shows!

[Isac]

Beautiful photo. They do seem to have an over proportioned beak for their size, but a gorgeous and colourful looking bird.

[avkomp]

good work. minimalist works well in this case too

[wigz]

Looks good to me. Very colourful bird well captured.

[David_MC]

Nicely done getting a shot of the Kingfisher.

[Ralph]

I like the bird in the shot but not overly keen on the background as for me it hasn't got a smoothness to it.
Put that aside it is a good image.

[dolina]

Thank you Greg, Stephen, Alan, David & Ralph

Key mistake I made here are the following

- using a 2005 EOS 5D rather than 2008 EOS 5D Mark II on March 2009 shoot date

- not getting lower to the ground so I am not photographing the top of the bird's head

- not getting nearer to 6 meters to the subject to increase their presence in-frame

- choosing ISO 800 (higher signal noise rather than ISO 640 or 1,250 that are both less noisy