Images by postsaurischian; additional text by bmathison1972
The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is a small bird endemic to much of the Palearctic, from Europe to North Africa, east to Japan, and south to the Malaysian Archipelago. Today we are looking at the 2019 rendition by Papo.
The figure measures 4.3 cm tall, including the stump base. Like many bird figures it is hard to measure accurately, but it looks to be approximately 1:3 in scale.
As the name suggests, kingfishers are, well, fishers. Due to the small size of the bird, the common kingfisher mainly feeds on small fish in the 2.0-12.5 cm range. Common prey are minnows, stickleback, and young roach and trout. This figure includes a small, silvery prey fish in its beak!
This species has been widely ignored by traditional toy companies, outside of Japan (visit here for the Blog review of one by Playmobil). Here are some in the collection of postsaurischian (clockwise from left): Wiener Bronze, Papo, Rosenthal Porcelaine, Nature Techni Colour, Kaiyodo.
This is the common kingfisher in my collection. While one could argue some of the Japanese versions are ‘better’ I like the overall presentation of this figure, with the stump base and fish prey. The whole presentation comes together nicely and it’s a good size, too!