Birdwatching - 3057 🐦

🦉 The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

• Alcedo alcedinis, alcyon, or halcedo, halcedinis (lat.) kingfisher; word "hals" in ancient Greek language meant "sea", along with the word thalassa. According to ancient Greek mythology Alcyone (Alcyone), the daughter of the wind god Eol, was the wife of Keix, who drowned due to the wrath of the gods. Alcyone, out of grief, threw herself into the sea, and also died. The gods had mercy and turned the spouses into kingfishers. Looking for her husband, Alcyone calls all the time “Keix! Keix!" and dives, trying to find him in the sea. Alcyone days - two weeks of calm weather around the day winter solstice. During these days, Eol pacified the winds so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher, could hatch chicks in her nest floating on the waves.
• atthis (ancient Greek mythology) Attis, a divine youth of extraordinary beauty

Seeing a kingfisher is like catching a sunbeam: a turquoise lightning flashes over the water - and it's gone. This tiny bird (no bigger than a sparrow!) looks like a living jewel: its back shimmers from emerald green to cobalt blue, its belly is fiery red, and the sides of its head look like someone has brushed white paint.

A true master of underwater hunting, the kingfisher can sit motionless on a branch above the water for half an hour, looking for fry. Having noticed prey, it dives and immediately emerges back with a fish in its beak. It dives completely silently, without leaving even a splash on the water.