KINGFISHER: shy jewel of the riverbank

AS dazzling and beautiful as a precious stone, the kingfisher gladdens the eye like few other birds as it goes about its hunt.

In overcast conditions, its distinctive blue and orange plumage seems to glow with a strange kind of light as it darts around a stream or river.

This voracious fish eater is one of our most visually stunning birds with its unusual, almost exotic, appearance enhanced by a beak which makes up a quarter of its 16cms length.

British kingfishers are actually only one strain of what is generally a tropical species, with other kingfishers located from Africa to New Guinea. For such a glamorous bird, the kingfisher's nesting arrangements are surprisingly un-glamorous.

Like a supermodel with disgusting habits, it is without doubt one of the messiest home-makers of the bird world.

In a deep hole, hollowed out of a steep bank, the female will lay up to seven white, roundish eggs.

When the eggs hatch, the nest quickly becomes littered with stinking fish remains and droppings.

The smell carries, which is probably why the kingfisher is wise enough to make the nest site as inaccessible to predators as possible.

So filthy can the nest become that kingfishers often have to start the day with a refreshing dip to clean feathers that have become soiled.

Fish are the only food on its menu, any that can be speared by that beak and quickly subdued long enough to be eaten.

Kingfishers fly into water at speed, closing their eyes before they hit the surface and hoping their initial calculations about the fish's position were correct.

If they are, they will quickly regain their perch and batter their unfortunate prey into submission before swallowing it head-first.

I last glimpsed a kingfisher about a year ago, hunting along a quiet stretch of a local river.

It was quite a dark, drizzly day but the kingfisher's appearance was electrifying, like seeing a small blue lamp fluttering above the water. Because kingfishers have such a restricted diet, they are especially vulnerable to starvation during harsh winter months when lakes and streams ice over.

Pollution is another threat as it kills off their food source and they constantly have to fly elsewhere to survive.

In 1998, a study of 100 wetland wildlife sites found that the majority were suffering from 'eutrophication' - an over-enriched state where all water life is slowly suffocated, due to pollution.

An English Nature spokesman concluded that if nothing was done "we may have to forgo our favourite lakeside walks with kingfishers, dragonflies, and water lilies. Instead, we shall be faced with an unattractive algal soup, devoid of wildlife."

Not an appetising scenario - especially for the kingfisher.