Kingfisher Banks

Kingfishers are an extremely beautiful, enigmatic species that delight and engage the public. They are also a key indicator species for the health of our local waterways, namely the Brent River Valley and the Grand Union Canal. 

Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG) is keen to encourage more kingfishers to breed along Ealing’s waterways. The kingfishers will act as wildlife ambassadors for keeping our waterways healthy.  For this project, EWG are working in collaboration with the Council parks team and Brent River and Canal Society (BRCS). In order to facilitate breeding kingfishers, we are installing artificial kingfisher nest tubes and waterside nesting banks in a few key locations. These will be in locations where these preferred habitat features do not yet exist.  

Activities

BRCS, Ealing Park Rangers and EWG volunteers installed a couple of tubes into a suitable steep riverbank early in the 2020 season

EWG volunteers installed a small artificial bank as a practice run. This was to enable us to work out best methods for construction. This will need to be improved as it is not currently suited to kingfishers nesting. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has delayed further works. We’re hoping to have the main artificial bank project installed by the 2021 breeding season. You can keep an eye on our Events page for more details on when we will restart works and how you can volunteer! Ealing’s Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is currently in development in consultation with EWG. Within that, kingfishers will have their own Species Action Plan (SAP) photo: Philip Alford

Kingfishers on Camera!

We set up some of our trail cameras on the Brent and we got some beautiful footage of these gorgeous birds!