Animalia Stupendium: The Common Kingfisher

Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the common kingfisher common name Eurasian kingfisher, common kingfisher, or river kingfisher. Scientific classification alcedo athis, frequency and range Europe, Northern Africa, Central and Southern Asia. Size up to six inches or fifteen centimeters long, diet small fish, along with some aquatic insects, treasure horde, bone, littered burrows and eggs challenge rating one. Some ninety two kingfisher species populate the Earth and are

found on every continent except for Antarctica. Of these, a good half prey upon lizards and other small land animals, and the akin the bee eaters, as their name suggests, snatch bees and wasps right out of the air, then smack them against a branch to dislodge the venom before gobbling them down. But I digress. A good half of known kingfisher species do what they're most famous for, and

that is catch and eat fish. Such is the case of the European kingfisher, a beautiful bird with an almost comically large head, long bill, short legs, and a stubby tail. Its plumage is absolutely resplendent, an orange belly the color of a brilliant sunset, and turquoise wings and head. Such a splendid little avian jim you will find it not in treasure chess, but on branches overhanging, clear, slow moving

streams and rivers. Their vision is superb highly adapted to watch for fish under the surface of the water, adjusting for refraction and making out prey a good one hundred yards or ninety meters away perception check success, the kingfisher dives into the water, snatches its prey in its beak, and then flies back to its perch, where it stuns the fish against a branch before swallowing it head first.

solved similar problems over the course of evolutionary time. The human design problem here has nothing to do with catching fish or diving into the water, but rather with maximizing the design of Japanese bullet trains see early in their use, the high speed trains generated a pressure boom when exiting tunnels due to build up and compressed air at the front of the speeding train, an effect that also served

to slow the trains down. At least this was the case until engineers studied the head and beak structure of the common kingfisher, which in turn has evolved for maximal streamlined entry into the water. The scientists were able to apply these design principles to the front of the train, and presto, no more boom. Finally, I would like to

mention the layer or burrow of the common kingfisher. It is assumed that this species does not collect and use nesting materials, but rather digs nest burrows in the banks of streams or rivers, the entryway sloping to prevent rain and floodwaters from flowing into it. And here inside, certainly you may find the birds and their eggs, but you will also find a great midden of fish bones. See. The common kingfisher will frequently cough up indigestible bits of

bone and scale which accumulate in the burrow. Other varieties of fish eating kingfisher, however, may make more active use of the bones in their burrow construction. Ah. We could go on and on about the kingfishers of the world and their relatives, but for now I must retire my wizard's quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall return with even more wonders of the natural world.

Anadoble and animated by Jules Bartell twenty nineteen. And Soory vs. Sarah McGarry's BioMedics Applications and Structural Design, published in the International Journal of Innovative Research and Science, Engineering and Technology, twenty twenty one. Thanks as always to the excellent Jjpossway for producing this episode. If you wish to contact Argomandanes with recommendations for future episodes, you can send an email to contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.