Where do Kingfishers rear their chicks?
The Kingfisher’s nest consists of a tunnel, one metre long and about 6 cm in diameter, cut in a river bank. ! At the far end it widens out into dry nest-chamber, the floor of which becomes strewn with fish bone and other remains of food. A kingfisher often uses the same nest year after year.
The parents build the tunnels with their beaks. This goes back half a metre to a nesting chamber where the chicks remain until they are ready to leave the nest altogether. The floor of the tunnel becomes fouled with the remains of fishes and their own drop-pings which steadily flow the entrance and down over the face of the vertical bank. The odour from this liquid mass is a characteristic of the nesting site.
