Common Kingfishers measure 17 – 19 centimetres in length, weigh between 34 – 46 grams and have a wingspan of 25 centimetres. Their beak is around 4 centimetres long and pointed. Kingfishers have short, orange coloured legs. Kingfishers are very brightly coloured. The colour of their wings is a blue/green colour and their upperparts, rump and tail are a bright blue colour. Their underparts are bright orange and they have a small, white bib underneath their beaks, on their throats.
The kingfishers head is blue with orange marks in front and behind the birds eyes and a white mark on each side of the head. These bright, beautiful colours are more apparent when the bird is in flight.
Male kingfishers and female kingfishers are are almost identical except for an orange colouration with a black tip on the lower part of the females beak/mandibles. Young kingfishers are similar to the adults in appearance, however, they have duller and greener upperparts, paler underparts, black beak and initially, black legs.
Kingfishers have very keen eyesight. The kingfisher has monocular vision (in which each eye is used separately) in the air and binocular vision (in which both eyes are used together) in water. The underwater vision is not as a sharp as in the air, however, the ability to judge the distance of moving prey is more important than the sharpness of the image.
The Common kingfisher has no particular song, however, they vocalize using a shrill ‘tsee’ or ‘tsee-tsee’ call. Their flight call is a short sharp whistle, chee, repeated two or three times. Anxious birds emit a harsh, shrit-it-it and nestlings call for food with a churring noise.
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