I am so lucky to have seen a Kingfisher several times: first time on my first date with my husband. And even last week in Nature Monuments in 's-Graveland. Kingfishers are small bright blue and orange birds of slow moving or still water. They fly rapidly, low over water, and hunt fish, caught by diving, from riverside perches. It has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank. They are vulnerable to habitat degradation through pollution or management of watercourses. A number of species are considered threatened by human activities and are in danger of extinction. They need additional protection. Kingfishers are important members of ecosystems and good indicators of freshwater community health. The highest densities of breeding birds are found in habitats with clear water, which permits optimal prey visibility, and trees or shrubs on the banks. These habitats have also the highest quality of water, so the presence of this bird confirms the standard of the water. Measures to ‘improve’ (for human - not animals) water flow can disrupt this habitat, and in particular, the replacement of natural banks by artificial confinement greatly reduces the populations of fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles, and waterside birds are lost.  .