African Wildlife & Environment Issue 79

KEEPING CLEAN The Brown-hooded Kingfisher is not easy to spot but I am sure that you have heard its call before.The Mom and Dad kingfisher make a long nest tunnel over 1m long in an embankment.At the end of the tunnel, they make a chamber where the eggs can be found. Once the chicks hatch their favourite food delivery is grasshoppers with their hind back legs removed (legless grasshoppers for dinner, what a treat!!) The chicks like to keep their nest clean so when they need the loo they head to the end of the tunnel and poop out of the entrance! No potty training for them! Their personal hygiene does not stop there. Urban adult Brown- hooded Kingfishers love using swimming pools for bathing! They dive and belly flop in the swimming pool repeatedly until they feel that they are spotlessly clean. Often, they do this as they are covered in itchy mites from the nest.

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Photograph: JohnWesson

Find out why ANIMALS CANNOT BE BLUE

KINGFISHER BLUE TheWoodland Kingfisher is the messenger to say that spring has arrived.They arrive from the north in spring announcing their presence with a loud call from a high calling post. While making this beautiful call they open and close their wings to show off the brilliant kingfisher blue feathers. It is amazing to think that nature can produce such striking blue colours especially with certain bird feathers and even butterfly wings. Kingfisher blue is a well know shade of colour. Colour in nature is amazing especially the beautiful iridescent colours of

many bird feathers and even butterflies. Many of these colours are structural colour, meaning that it is the structure of the feather that creates the colour. It all has to do with how light is scattered and bent when it hits the feather. In the human world we generate loads of energy and pollution to make colour for all the things we need. What can we learn from the kingfisher feather to make colour? Could we create surfaces, materials and objects that had a surface structure to create colour rather than chemicals which pollute the environment?

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Photograph: JohnWesson

55 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 79 (2021)