Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalia Stupendia. My name is Argomandanes, Wizard to
Speaker 2: the sleeping Queen of the Four Crowns and the Council
Speaker 2: of regentsy I swand innovator and tireless creature chronicler. However,
Speaker 2: these days mere monsters hold no mystery for me. Dragons,
Speaker 2: our drab unicorns are underwhelming. Instead, I turn my attention
Speaker 2: once more to the strange fauna of a land called Earth.
Speaker 2: Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider the common
Speaker 2: kingfisher common name Eurasian kingfisher, common kingfisher, or river kingfisher.
Speaker 2: Scientific classification alcedo athis, frequency and range Europe, Northern Africa,
Speaker 2: Central and Southern Asia. Size up to six inches or
Speaker 2: fifteen centimeters long, diet small fish, along with some aquatic insects,
Speaker 2: treasure horde, bone, littered burrows and eggs challenge rating one.
Speaker 2: Some ninety two kingfisher species populate the Earth and are
Speaker 2: found on every continent except for Antarctica. Of these, a
Speaker 2: good half prey upon lizards and other small land animals,
Speaker 2: and the akin the bee eaters, as their name suggests,
Speaker 2: snatch bees and wasps right out of the air, then
Speaker 2: smack them against a branch to dislodge the venom before
Speaker 2: gobbling them down. But I digress. A good half of
Speaker 2: known kingfisher species do what they're most famous for, and
Speaker 2: that is catch and eat fish. Such is the case
Speaker 2: of the European kingfisher, a beautiful bird with an almost
Speaker 2: comically large head, long bill, short legs, and a stubby tail.
Speaker 2: Its plumage is absolutely resplendent, an orange belly the color
Speaker 2: of a brilliant sunset, and turquoise wings and head. Such
Speaker 2: a splendid little avian jim you will find it not
Speaker 2: in treasure chess, but on branches overhanging, clear, slow moving
Speaker 2: streams and rivers. Their vision is superb highly adapted to
Speaker 2: watch for fish under the surface of the water, adjusting
Speaker 2: for refraction and making out prey a good one hundred
Speaker 2: yards or ninety meters away perception check success, the kingfisher
Speaker 2: dives into the water, snatches its prey in its beak,
Speaker 2: and then flies back to its perch, where it stuns
Speaker 2: the fish against a branch before swallowing it head first.
Speaker 3: Bludgeoning damage.
Speaker 2: Now it's easy to dismiss this hunting spectacle, at least
Speaker 2: until you try to do it for yourself. No, I
Speaker 2: don't refer to any of my polymorph duels with various witches,
Speaker 2: but rather to the kingfisher's place in the human science
Speaker 2: of biomimicry. This is, of course, the discipline of solving
Speaker 2: complex human problems by looking at the way nature has
Speaker 2: solved similar problems over the course of evolutionary time. The
Speaker 2: human design problem here has nothing to do with catching
Speaker 2: fish or diving into the water, but rather with maximizing
Speaker 2: the design of Japanese bullet trains see early in their use,
Speaker 2: the high speed trains generated a pressure boom when exiting
Speaker 2: tunnels due to build up and compressed air at the
Speaker 2: front of the speeding train, an effect that also served
Speaker 2: to slow the trains down. At least this was the
Speaker 2: case until engineers studied the head and beak structure of
Speaker 2: the common kingfisher, which in turn has evolved for maximal
Speaker 2: streamlined entry into the water. The scientists were able to
Speaker 2: apply these design principles to the front of the train,
Speaker 2: and presto, no more boom. Finally, I would like to
Speaker 2: mention the layer or burrow of the common kingfisher. It
Speaker 2: is assumed that this species does not collect and use
Speaker 2: nesting materials, but rather digs nest burrows in the banks
Speaker 2: of streams or rivers, the entryway sloping to prevent rain
Speaker 2: and floodwaters from flowing into it. And here inside, certainly
Speaker 2: you may find the birds and their eggs, but you
Speaker 2: will also find a great midden of fish bones. See.
Speaker 2: The common kingfisher will frequently cough up indigestible bits of
Speaker 2: bone and scale which accumulate in the burrow. Other varieties
Speaker 2: of fish eating kingfisher, however, may make more active use
Speaker 2: of the bones in their burrow construction. Ah. We could
Speaker 2: go on and on about the kingfishers of the world
Speaker 2: and their relatives, but for now I must retire my
Speaker 2: wizard's quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I
Speaker 2: shall return with even more wonders of the natural world.
Speaker 3: Hi, this is Robert Lamb. Thanks to the Wizard Argomandanese
Speaker 3: once more for joining us in this episode. Sources for
Speaker 3: this one included David Bernie's Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: San Diego Zoo dot Org, BBC's Howie Kingfisher helped reshape
Speaker 3: Japan's Bullet Train, a video produced by Jennifer Green and
Speaker 3: Anadoble and animated by Jules Bartell twenty nineteen. And Soory vs.
Speaker 3: Sarah McGarry's BioMedics Applications and Structural Design, published in the
Speaker 3: International Journal of Innovative Research and Science, Engineering and Technology,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one. Thanks as always to the excellent Jjpossway
Speaker 3: for producing this episode. If you wish to contact Argomandanes
Speaker 3: with recommendations for future episodes, you can send an email
Speaker 3: to contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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