I am particularly fond of Kingfishers but in New Zealand we only have one, the Sacred Kingfisher.  This species also occurs in Australia along with a number of other kingfishers including their iconic Kookaburras. They are generally quite wary and being small and difficult to approach closely are difficult to photograph well. They migrate altitudinally, moving inland to breed in the summer and then migrating to the coast in winter.

During their coastal winters they often congregate in significant number around estuaries where they feed on little crabs over the mudflats. With their rapid flight this is also challenging but some interesting images can be had. They sit on a low perch looking for a moving crab then fly low over the intertidal flats and often pick up the crab while in flight, flexing their neck right under their body. When extending the neck forward the crab sometime slips and is lost forward, landing ahead of the bird which can swoop down and collect it. They then return to a perch to knock the crab into submission before swallowing it. 

After consuming a number of crabs they will regurgitate a pellet of the crushed exoskeletons from their crop as it is probably less uncomfortable than the alternative elimination pathway.

A recent trip to a local estuary gave me an opportunity to photograph this behaviour. I was using a Nikon D500 with the 500mm f4 with 1.4x teleconverter giving an effective field of view equivalent to a 1050mm lens which is a challenging rig to use for tracking rapid flying kingfishers. A monopod provided some support and was especially useful for the perched images. I am not a huge fan of tripods and gimbal heads but may give this a try on my next visit.

For some more Sacred Kingfisher images see my post from 2014

For more information on these interesting birds see New Zealand Birds Online