The Kingfisher was one of the birds we very much wanted to observe once we started birdwatching. Surprisingly, we’ve seen quite a few over, but none closer than this specimen, sitting just across a small creek.
Male kingfisher have an all-black beak (like the one in the picture above), while the females have an orange underside. They breed in Switzerland, requiring nesting banks where they can dig their nesting holes (up to a meter long!). The kingfisher needs clean, slow-flowing water, plenty of fish, and some trees or bushes lining the water .. something becoming more and more scarce in Switzerland.
Birds and wildlife in Switzerland 
I think I saw a kingfisher yesterday evening on a stretch of the Glatt, between Hochfelden and Glattfelden. It was maybe 100m away. I didn’t have a pair of bins with me, and it was about 18:30 and overcast. It flew close to the water’s surface, and the wings and back were definitely a bright, light blue. I think I saw it perch on a vertical, dead tree branch by the bank.
LikeLike