How to photograph kingfishers without disturbing them

Fieldcraft first, long lens second

The kingfisher is one of Britain's most photographed birds, and also one of the easiest to disturb. It weighs about as much as a mouse, nests in tunnels barely the width of a fist, and lives on a riverbank that hundreds of people walk past every week. A 600mm lens will not save a photograph if the bird is already uneasy, and a bank that collapses under your boots will destroy a nest you never even knew was there.

So treat the long lens as the last item on the list, not the first. The photographers who come back with sharp, natural-looking kingfisher images are almost always the ones who spent weeks learning a single stretch of water before they took a camera to it. Expect to watch far more than you shoot.

Read the river before you lift the camera

Kingfishers are creatures of habit. They hunt from fixed perches, and once you know a bird's favourites you can plan around them instead of chasing flashes of blue up and down the valley.

• Look for perches 1–2 metres above the water — a low overhanging branch, an exposed root, a fallen alder, a mooring post on a canal, even a wire fence crossing a ditch.
• Check beneath them. White, chalky splashes and small fish bones or pellets tell you a perch is regularly used.
• Choose clean, shallow water. Kingfishers dive where they can see small fish, sticklebacks and minnows against a bright bottom.
• Fish the edges of the day. The first two hours after dawn and the last hour before dusk are by far the most productive. Midday in July is usually dead time.
• Watch the weather. A bright, still morning after a cold night often triggers heavy feeding, as does the first clear spell after rain.

Walk the stretch at least three times before you take a seat. You are looking for patterns: which perch a bird uses on its way upstream, where it pauses, how far it tolerates a person walking past.

Nesting banks: the line you must not cross

From March through to July, and sometimes into August, kingfishers are nesting. They excavate a tunnel up to 90cm long into a vertical bank of sand, soft earth or, occasionally, an old wall or quarry face, and raise two or three broods in a season.

In the UK, kingfishers are listed on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. That makes it an offence to intentionally or recklessly disturb a bird at or near its nest, and it means you need a licence to photograph at a nest site at all. This is not red tape for its own sake: a disturbed pair can abandon a brood, and a trampled bank can collapse or expose the tunnel to rats and mink.

Practically, that means never climbing a bank to peer at an entrance hole, never standing directly in front of one, and never returning to the same spot repeatedly. If you want nesting behaviour, watch from the opposite bank with a long lens, or work with a licensed photographer who knows the site.

Hides, distance and staying invisible

Kingfishers have excellent eyesight and a low tolerance for movement. A minimum working distance of 8–10 metres is sensible, and further is better — close the gap with focal length, not with your feet.

• Sit low and still, screened by rushes, a bush or a purpose-made hide. Break up your outline; a human silhouette on an open bank is the single biggest giveaway.
• Wear muted greens, browns and greys. Avoid white, bright blues, rustling waterproofs and anything shiny.
• Approach across the wind where you can, and arrive before first light so the bird settles with you already in place.
• Allow 30–45 minutes of complete stillness after you sit down. Normal behaviour usually resumes, but only if you give it time.
• Do not bait with fish, do not use playback, and do not use flash at close range on a perched bird.

Camera settings that keep pace with a dive

A kingfisher is roughly 16cm long and hits the water at speed, so your shutter speed matters more than anything else. Start at 1/1000 sec for a perched bird and push to 1/2500–1/4000 sec for dives and flight. Aperture of f/4–f/5.6 gives clean separation from the background; stop down to f/8 only if you are unusually close.

Use auto ISO with a ceiling you are happy with — 6400 is reasonable on most modern bodies — and continuous autofocus with subject tracking. Back-button focus lets you lock onto the perch and wait. For a diving shot, pre-focus on the water below the perch, watch for the tell: the bird dips its head, leans forward, then drops. Fire a short burst, not a long one.

An electronic or quiet shutter helps at close range, and a beanbag or monopod resting on a hide shelf beats hand-holding every time.

The signs you are too close

Learn to read discomfort, because it is rarely obvious. A sharp, repeated chattering alarm call is a clear warning. So is a bird that flies off the moment you appear, hovers over the water instead of landing, or sits on a distant perch watching you rather than hunting. If a kingfisher is carrying a fish and holding back near a bank, it is probably waiting to feed young, and you are in the way.

Back off, or leave altogether and come back another day. The river will still be there, and so, with patience and a little restraint, will the bird.