Photographing kingfishers, a jewel of a bird

I had a good session in the hide today photographing kingfishers and also the water rails put in an appearance too. The weather was quite bright and sunny which was excellent for the water rail but less so for the kingfishers which, being a bright bird, look better in overcast conditions. Kingfishers are amazingly beautiful birds and lightning quick at diving into the water: I had no chance of catching the action while using the 500mm lens but it did allow me to get some nice portrait shots of these birds. Kingfishers are amazingly confiding birds and don’t seem to be phased by any amount of shutter sounds or even movement of the camera lens so there’s always plenty of opportunity to get lots of shots once they perch up. There’s a pretty good chance I’ll be photographing kingfishers again soon as I have some ideas for different perches I’d like to use. All the images were taken using a Nikon D4 and Nikkor 500mm f/4 AF-S VR lens.

For your chance at photographing kingfisher, just contact my friend Alan at Scottish Photography Hides to book a place – quote ‘Wildscenes’ for a £10 discount on your booking!