Kingfishers I saw

There are three resident kingfishers at Singapore Botanic Garden (SBG) according to a sign. I saw two of them,  storkbilled kingfishers and collared kingfishers before. The third one  - white throated kingfishers had been elusive to me until last Sunday.

white throated kingfisher

On the late afternoon of the Sunday, we left home for a walk at  SBG before dinner. It was bright daylight so I carried my camera,  and the big Tamron lens with me in a backpack just in case. I did the same prior several weeks, and I did not even put the big lens on my camara because there were nothing to take pictures at.  

We entered SBG from Tanglin gate, walking around Swan lake, and then Keppel wetland. Nothing prompted to put the big lens on again. We walked back to the swan lake and crossed it through the causeway. Just then, Lily spotted a flying bird with blue wings landing on a tree branch by the pond. It was a white throated kingfisher! I put the Tamron lens on, and shoot away. The bird just perched there, not doing anything except looking around.

Hoping to see it diving for fishes, we stayed round.

Our patience paid off, it dived for fishes a couple times, but I could not capture the actions on my camera. Thinking about the inability, we decided that it was because  I zoomed in too much so I could not follow its flight. I finally caught it in action when it took off to dive the third time, but the quality of the photos were not ideal. I need to learn how to take pictures with the big lens.

When we were about to leave, I tunned off the camera, the kingfisher took off from its perch, flew to my direction, touched water, no catch,  and turned away.

Here are the two other resident kingfishers at SBG, collared kingfishers, and stork-billed kingfishers. I also spotted common kingfishers at SBG, and caught it diving for fishes on camera!

collared kingfisher

stork-billed kingfishers

common kingfisher

There are 10 species of kingfishers recorded at Singapore,  I saw 4 of them. Some of the kingfishers are really elusive, it takes serendipity to spot them.

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Notes

1. The first time I saw white throated kingfisher was in 2021 at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

2. I mistaken a sunda pygmy woodpecker at Pulau Ubin as a Pied Kingfisher...and thought it was the 5th kingfisher I saw

Sunda Pygmy woodpecker