Welcome to Wildzone

The Lake District attracts visitors year-round to Cumbria's visitor attractions, glacial landscapes and excellent accommodation. Although visitors often miss out on the wild experiences minutes away from the tourist hotspots. The Wildzone aims to help visitors really see the wild side of Cumbria from close up wild life encounters to wild family activities.

Kingfisher

The kingfisher is one of our most brightly coloured birds and is one of the most exciting to see. A quick flash of its colourful blue and orange plumage is often the only glimpse you will get and yet it is unmistakeable as it darts down our rivers and canals in its speedy, direct flight.

The kingfisher feeds on tadpoles, small fish and the larva of insects in the water, and sits on branches above the water looking for its prey before darting out. It has a long bill for catching its chosen food and it can see straight through the water, so that it rarely misses its prey. Small fish caught by a kingfisher suffer a rather startling death. After flying back up to its perch the kingfisher will hold the fish by its tail and beat it against its perch. Once dead, the fish is then flipped around and eaten whole and head first.

Territory is important to the kingfisher all year round, as any bird unable to secure a territory with a good food supply is likely to perish. Birds will cross territories to court and mate. Male and female both birds take responsibility of creating the nest, which is a burrow in the riverbank, and for incubating the round and glossy white eggs. Incubation of the eggs is around 20 days and it is another month before the young will fledge, when they will learn to fly and hunt, and will leave to find their own territories.

The kingfisher is vulnerable to pollution but here in Cumbria we are lucky to have some of the best quality rivers in the country. You are most like to spot one along the Ulverston canal and the rivers Crake and Leven, on the River Eden, near Appleby, and on the Solway plain. Few are seen on the west coast. The recent hard winter may have had a devastating affect on Cumbria's population of kingfishers but because they can have two or three broods every year, populations should quickly return.

Kingfisher have also regularly been sighted in Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Wreay Woods, near Carlisle. For more information visit http://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wreay-woods.html

Kingfisher can be seen in August.
View our sightings page to find local photographs.

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