The true king of fishing birds - the Kingfisher

 Small Blue Kingfisher - I took this photo near Matthur lake.

Kingfisher - as the name implies, the undisputed king of all fishing birds. Colourful, with its highly scientific method of catching fish and small prey, it is a pleasure to track kingfishers. And I classify these as 'daily birds' because they are so easily seen close to villages in and around Shimoga. Shimoga region hosts both water-kingfishers and tree-kingfishers. So far I have been able to see three types of kingfishers around Shimoga - Small Blue Kingfisher, White-breasted Kingfisher and the Pied Kingfisher.

White-breasted Kingfisher, also known as White-throated Kingfisher, is by far the most common around these parts, and the easiest to sight. I don't believe there is a single person living in rural Shimoga who has not seen this at one time or another. Probably their willingness to stay close to urban areas is the reason for their familiarity. Scientific name for this is Halcyon smyrnensis.

Small Blue Kingfisher, also known as Common Kingfisher, is a bit hard to find, but can be seen in and around the Matthur lake, Tunga river track and the Gajnur dam. As the wikipedia article explains, this is actually "Common Kingfisher", as opposed to Cerulean Kingfisher, which is the one that is actually blue but lives in Indonesia! Scientific name for this is Alcedo atthis.

Pied kingfisher is the least populous, but is actually easier to sight than the small blue kingfisher - mainly because these spend a considerable time on the wires hanging besides the bridges on Tunga river connecting Shimoga to Mangalore and Banglaore.Scientific name for this is Ceryle rudis.

K. P. Poornachandra Tejaswi explains a lot more about the lifestyle and sightings of the above and other kingfishers found in Karnataka, and Salim Ali is always a ready reference.