Film | Building An Artificial Kingfisher Nest | My Wildlife Hacks

After years of watching kingfishers at this lake, I decided to watch them inside the nest. I covered a hide it with mud to create an artificial bank and built a replica kingfisher nest inside. It was amazing to see the kingfisher chicks hatch and eventually fledge.

Filming kingfishers

I've spent years watching kingfishers, but to film their lives up close I built an artificial lakeside bank with a bespoke kingfisher nest inside. From cameras hidden within, I could film their secret, underground world without disturbing them. The bank also incorporated a series of hides, with more than 10 filming hatches from which I was able to film the kingfishers' intimate courtship process and follow them as they flew to and from the nest - from this vantage point I also watched a robin pair after they decided to nest in a small hollow where I kept my audio equipment!

Cameras hidden inside their nest allowed me to film the entire process, from egg-laying, to chicks' first meals. As they grew the kingfisher chicks began to grow their feathers. These first emerge covered in steely-blue shafts known as pins that eventually shed allowing the beautiful electric blue feathers to unfurl.