Kingfishers are stunningly beautiful but elusive birds.  About the most you can usually hope for is a sight of small electric blue bird perched at a distance.  Often as not, you might just see no more than the streak of that blue as you accidentally startle one while you walk along the bank of a river.  I’ve had many such encounters with these birds but very few where it was possible to spend a bit of time watching them or even grab a photo.  The one above is typical.  Photographed at my local pond, it flew across the water and perched on a small off-shore island for just a handful of seconds before disappearing off again.  That’s shot with a 500mm lens and is still cropped by 50%.  

Nevertheless, with a good pair of binoculars and moving very quietly (and then not at all) when you do see one you can watch them from, what the bird considers to be, a safe distance.  This year, I set a goal of watching these birds more closely.  With a lot of time and care I’ve been fortunate enough to do so.  You can see a little of that here. 

(N.B. By “a lot” I actually mean a very great deal of care and caution - to the extent of ensuring no disturbance at all.)