The Legend of Halcyone, the Kingfisher

Each winter during seven full days of calm

Halcyone broods on her floating nest—

her nest that sails upon a halcyon sea:

the passage of the deep is free from storms,

throughout those seven full days; and Aeolus

restraining harmful winds, within their cave,

for his descendants' sake gives halcyon seas.

-- Ovid. Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.

Internet source: Perseus Digigal Library.

-- Kingfisher, Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, S.C. 

Of the approximately 110 species of kingfisher found worldwide on every continent except Antarctica, we have seen and photographed three of them on our various birding trips. Most recently, we saw this bird on our trip to South Carolina.

Kingfishers are beautiful birds, often brightly colored or vividly marked. They generally perch briefly on tree branches or utility wires near water where they wait to swoop down and catch fish. There's always something exciting about catching sight of one of these swiftly moving birds in a salt marsh, beside a river, or near a pond.

-- Amazon Kingfisher, Summit Pond, Gamboa, Panama

The ancient Greeks believed that the kingfisher nested during mid-winter, and that the gods provided special calm days, named halcyon days after the Greek name of this bird. In reality, kingfishers lay eggs in holes not nests, but maybe the ancient Greeks didn't know this. Whenever I see the bird, I think of this lovely ancient name for calm seas or just for happy days with beautiful weather. The ancient Greek sailors attributed such luck to the kingfisher: I can see how they loved the bird.

-- Ringed Kingfisher, Maranon River, Peru

Ovid and other classical poets relate the myth of Alcyone (the Greek name for the kingfisher) and her husband Ceyx. Through arrogance, they angered Zeus and Hera, who first punished them with death, and then relented and turned them into birds that nested in winter during a period of calm ordered by Zeus and carried out by her father, Aeolus, ruler of the winds. Myth collector Robert Graves identified several versions of the story, including various stories of her parentage. He identified Alcyone to be a manifestation of a moon goddess from earlier myths.

Belted Kingfisher from Audubon's Birds of America (1827-1838).

The most surprising members of the kingfisher family are the kookaburras of Australia and New Guinea, which differ from other kingfishers because they rarely eat fish, and do not live near water.

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcyone_and_Ceyx 

Original photos and blog post copyright © 2020 mae sander for maefood dot blog spot dot com.

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