Skip to content

Successful Kingfisher Breeders Were More Likely to Return the Following Year

Male common kingfisher carrying prey near a nesting burrow
Research · Behaviour

A five-year study of common kingfishers (Alcedo atthis) tested whether breeding success influenced the likelihood that adults would return in a later breeding season. From 2014 to 2018, researchers followed breeding populations in the Danube River system of southwestern Slovakia and in Central Bohemia, South Bohemia and the Vysočina region of Czechia. They ringed 353 adults and recaptured 53 in subsequent years.

Failed breeders were not recorded back the following year

None of the 19 adults that failed to produce a brood in one season was recorded back the following year. Among 326 successful breeders, 34 returned, or about 10%. Successful breeders were therefore more likely to be recorded again the following year.

Among females, birds that fledged more young were also more likely to return. The authors discuss two possible explanations. Abundant food could allow some females to raise more young without paying as large a cost in survival or later site fidelity, or females with especially high breeding success may simply be higher-quality individuals. The authors present both as possible explanations for the female pattern.

Site fidelity was low and mate fidelity even lower

Overall breeding-site fidelity was about 13%, while fidelity to the same mate was only 2%. Males had higher return rates than females. The authors relate the particularly low mate fidelity partly to the females’ partial migratory behaviour: a female may not return to her former territory, or may arrive after her previous male has already paired with another female.

Among birds that did return, only females improved their breeding performance in the following season. The authors interpret the results as a sex-specific link between breeding success, return behaviour and parental investment: past reproductive performance was associated with whether birds were encountered again, but the pattern differed between males and females.

Sources and image credit

  1. Rubáčová, L., Čech, P., Čech, M., Melišková, M., & Procházka, P. (2026). Breeding success and sex predict return rates in the Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis. Ardeola, 73(1), 67–80.

Image: Skot — male common kingfisher carrying prey near a nesting burrow on the Rokytka River in Prague, Czechia; the study included a Czech breeding population. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Behaviour

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.