A pair of kingfishers have become the earliest to start building a nest ahead of breeding at Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire.
The bird species do not usually nest until early March, and may have started early on 4 February “due to the mild winter”, experts at the centre said.
Kingfishers have an estimated 4,900 breeding pairs in the UK.
Visitors to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust headquarters can try and spot the birds from a hide opposite the nest.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A pair of kingfishers have become the earliest to start building a nest ahead of breeding at Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire.
Visitors to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust headquarters can try and spot the birds from a hide opposite the nest.
“Spring hasn’t even fully sprung at WWT Slimbridge yet a pair of kingfishers seem to think so as they have already starting digging a hole to nest,” a Trust spokesperson said today.
Once a home is chosen for the pair, the male will present fish to the female in order to get her into condition to grow, lay and incubate the eggs.
Both the male and the female will feed them in the nest hole, with up to a 100 fish a day, including some aquatic invertebrates.
Only a few lucky visitors may see the newly fledged young, which tend to disperse very quickly, as the parents chase them off as they prepare for a second clutch of eggs.
The original article contains 344 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 53%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!