Birdwatching - 3089 🐦

🦉 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

This unusual bird cannot be confused with any other. Turquoise back, red belly, bright little legs. But the brightness is deceptive, because the kingfisher rarely catches the eye. It flashes across the water along the shore like a blue arrow and disappears into the shadows of the bushes.

It is a pleasure to watch him hunt. He sits on a branch near the water, looks for fry, then quickly dives almost vertically. If there is no prey, he flies to a new point.
Nests in holes on steep banks, but it is difficult to find them, because the bird is cautious.