We have White throated kingfisher couple at Amruthahalli lake and their resident. They generally perch over the fallen tree trop located at eastern side of lake. Perhaps, these kingfishers could be called common rather than the current common kingfisher. I spot them on every water body be it city or village. They are quite common near the water bodies eyeing on the prey. In contrast, its uncommon to see common kingfisher in Bangalore at least. Even though the white-throated are well adjusted to city environments, they are still not habituated to humans. Their behaviour remains like the ones I see in villages. Quite nervous on human sightings or it does not want to loose focus on its job? When the fly away, they fly quite far from the current location. So there is no second chance of shooting them at the same time. On rare occasions, I see them steady when humans approach. Probably bird is busy in targeting its prey. During that time if bird does not observe you for longer duration, you get lucky to shoot good portraits of it :-).
On one of the mornings, I saw this kingfisher soaking its body in mid of lake and perching back to its hunting ground. The birds know the importance of the morning bask under the Sun and also need to keep the feathers clean. The light was clear and bird was steady. As soon as I started aiming at it, the bird flew away. Looks like the bird was angry with me not allowing it peacefully dry & preen its body. Just before bird flew away, I caught few shots which came out ugly considering the morning sunlight and bird distance. My current camera and its lens does quite poor job of auto-focus in entangled vegetation. Here are pictures for record.
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