Secret Life of the Kingfisher | Discover Wildlife | Robert E Fuller

After years of watching kingfishers outside the nest, I built this artificial bank and in here is the kingfisher nest. This habitat is brimming with cameras and technology to reveal a secret world of the kingfisher. So on the outside it looks like a natural bank, but inside here is a network of hides where I film the kingfishers and just down here is where I film the courtship process. This is where I spend most of my time during the breeding season, where I've got incredible access into the nest. Where she lays eggs, then hatches them out and they get their first meal. I've got over 10 filming hatches and from this one I can film the kingfishers coming and going from the bank. When I'm filming the kingfishers, I'm often kept company by the robins and this is where I leave the nest in. With three chicks and one egg left to hatch, the kingfisher chicks are a week old and too big to brood, but it doesn't stop the male from trying. A few days later, their pin feathers are starting to show. At 20 days old, their feathers start to burst through. Just in time for their first flights, about a week later, well the male's arrived and he's got a fish and he's teasing the chick. I think he's trying to encourage it away on to the bigger lakes. Wow, that's incredible. So I've got another chick in front of me now, oh look at that, it's broken off a stick and it's tapping it on the branch as if it's a fish. This kingfish has only been out of the nest less than a day and its instincts are already kicking in. It's been amazing to follow these kingfishers from the eggs being laid through to hatching and now just look at them, they're out on the wing.