Common Kingfisher

The electric blue of the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is structural rather than pigmentary: it arises from the way light refracts within the feather, not from any blue dye. Upperparts blaze blue, underparts are orange, and the crown is blue-green with darker barring above a white throat patch and cheek spots. The long, dagger-shaped bill is dark, with an orange base to the lower mandible in females. Clear, slow-flowing rivers, streams, lakes and ponds suit the species, provided the water is clean enough to hold fish and the banks firm enough to nest in. A sharp, penetrating call given in flight is often the first sign of the bird. Engineers studied the bill profile when shaping the nose of Japan's Shinkansen, to reduce the pressure wave produced as trains leave tunnels.