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WILD ABOUT NOOSA HINTERLAND with Tony Wellington THE Azure Kingfisher is a shy bird that doesn’t like to be watched. Found along our streams and waterways, these birds are expert fish catchers. Using a beak more than half the length of their body, they snaffle prey by diving on it from a low perch. As well as fish, these diminutive kingfishers will also consume shrimp, yabbies and other freshwater inhabitants. I watched one follow a swimming platypus, hoping for anything the mammal stirred to the surface. Azure Kingfishers form monogamous pairs. They nest in one-metre-long burrows excavated into stream embankments. It takes a pair between three and seven days to carve out their nesting burrow using their little red feet as shovels. Nesting in embankments plainly leaves the breeding process highly susceptible to flooding. A sizeable rain event during Spring and Summer can spell doom for eggs and nestlings. Climate change is thus an issue for Azure Kingfishers as weather events become increasingly severe. Although there are no population estimates for Azure Kingfishers, they are known to be declining across their range. In Tasmania they are now considered critically endangered. The problem there appears to be the introduced brown trout, which competes for the same food. Elsewhere, voracious European carp generate a similar threat. Thankfully, here in the broader Noosa hinterland, Azure Kingfishers are plentiful. But one has to be quiet and patient to observe them.
Azure Kingfisher
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