Something missing

My brain works in funny ways. Yesterday, out of the blue, it occurred to me that I haven't seen or heard a kingfisher in a really long time, and I started missing them. When I lived next to the Sungei Serangoon in Singapore, I used to be able to sit at my window with a pair of binoculars and watch several different species of kingfisher in action (along with herons, egrets, white-bellied sea eagle and Brahminy kite).

The very common white-throated kingfisher. Picture by Manjith Kainikara, used under a CC license.

Kingfishers are found almost globally but are very species-poor in the New World. I definitely haven't come across the single (?) species from North America. Even South America with its insanely diverse birdlife only has 5 or 6 species, and unlike the finches, none of them ever made it out to the land of the tortoises.

The Galapagos islands are full of amazing birdlife, and the seabirds are particularly spectacular. But when little things like this nag at me, I remember that my home is where there are kingfishers and bird's nest ferns*.


*I spent a good part of my first year in New England missing heavily epiphytised trees, particularly the ones with big bird's nest ferns between the branches (e.g. this one)