The first time I got a glimpse of Pied Kingfisher was at Maddur, on an electric cable, while I was seated in a bus - there was no way I could have taken a picture. I revisited the place a few times, but did not even see it again. The next sighting was at my home town in Eranhikkal, Kozhikode, Kerala (see 'Scenes from the River side', 'Kingfishers @ Eranhikkal' and 'Are there no crows in Bangalore?' for some earlier posts from the same location) - but this time I was not carrying my camera!

But, on another visit to Eranhikkal, I returned to the river side, looking out for the Pied Kingfisher - after walking along the river side for almost an hour, I finally found the bird I was looking for. In the initial pics, the bird was seated in a small branch against the blue sky - and the angle was not so good to get a good view of its plumage.

I waited for some more time hoping the bird to move in to some other position and I was rewarded heavily when I saw its mate flying in and sitting in a nearby branch. I tiptoed towards it for this shot.

The picture comes with the Canon EOS 7D, mounted with a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L tele photo, in Av mode, f/6.3, auto-ISO for a 1/640s, ISO-250 exposure.

I still did not want to leave and kept taking more shots. The birds changed their positions a few times, but did not go too far. After almost an hour or so, one of them took a plunge in the river and came up with a catch. I retained the earlier setup for a Av mode, f/6.3, ISO-250, 1/500s shot.