A Brilliant Bird

Living in a busy, crowded city like mine, you don't expect to see any wildlife. Well, the city isn't completely devoid of wildlife. Besides stray cats and dogs (there are no squirrels here), there are birds.

The birds we see all the time are pigeons, crows (they are gray with a black head and neck, as if wearing an executioner's hood), a couple of different types of seagulls, terns, and little brown, nondescript birds (larks, maybe?). There isn't a big variety and definitely not a colorful variety. There are no cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, etc.

Besides seagulls and terns, there is a kind of black bird that swims half submerged and dives for fish from the surface. Its bill almost look like a duck's. They never fly inland as the seagulls do. I don't know what they are but I've seen birds similar to them in the marshes of Florida. 

One day recently, I was down by the water, a quieter part of the shoreline. In the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement and turned my head to catch a bird flying away from me. I saw a warm brown head with a bright turquoise back before he disappeared from my sight. After seeing birds in the white, brown, black, gray colors for two years, I was intrigued by the lovely turquoise. I thought about the bird often and decided to try googling it. To my surprise, I was able to identify it:

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipeida

It is a white-throated kingfisher. Isn't it lovely? I was pretty stoked because kingfishers are some of my favorite birds in Florida. Near my hometown, there is a narrow beach of soft sand called Mashes Sands that lies between a shallow bay and saltwater marshes. You could wade out in the bay for a hundred yards or more and the water will barely reach above your thighs. There is a creek that flows out from the marshes into the bay. This complex, delicate ecosystem of marsh and bay is home to a great variety of animals from birds to crabs to fishes, and even small sharks. The saltwater is probably more brackish than true blue saltwater. Here, I used to watch the kingfishers beat their wings, hovering high in the air above the marshes for several minutes, with their heads pointed straight down and then suddenly dive-bomb into the water to catch their prey. I was always amazed at how long they kept this fixed position in the air, hardly wavering from it. I have to admit that the kingfishers of Mashes Sands don't have anything on these beautiful white-throated kingfishers with the brilliant blue/turquoise wings and tails.

Well, I'm getting homesick writing about Mashes Sands. The next post should contain a description of a cultural tradition that I got to experience recently. Stay tuned.