Birdwatching - 3292🐦

🦉 The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

• Alcedo alcedinis, alcyon, or halcedo, halcedinis (lat.) kingfisher; word "hals" in ancient Greek language meant "sea", along with the word thalassa. According to ancient Greek mythology Alcyone (Alcyone), the daughter of the wind god Eol, was the wife of Keix, who drowned due to the wrath of the gods. Alcyone, out of grief, threw herself into the sea, and also died. The gods had mercy and turned the spouses into kingfishers. Looking for her husband, Alcyone calls all the time “Keix! Keix!" and dives, trying to find him in the sea. Alcyone days - two weeks of calm weather around the day winter solstice. During these days, Eol pacified the winds so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher, could hatch chicks in her nest floating on the waves.
• atthis (ancient Greek mythology) Attis, a divine youth of extraordinary beauty

I've been observing these birds since 2017. They live in a ravine near the river, where a small stream flows and bushes grow. These birds dig burrows in the clay walls of the ravine, carefully concealed by the foliage of the bushes.

When the chicks grow up, their parents teach them to fish near this spot, where there's a small pond in the middle of a bushy area. The youngsters sit on the branches of the bushes and watch their parents dive for fish.