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ÌýMale kingfisher with rose patch on lower bill © Ian Llewellyn

They're just fascinating really. They're the bird for me. It's not that I don't appreciate other animals - I could sit and watch a barn owl hunting or a stoat luring a rabbit - but they just don't engage me in the same way.

They're that glamorous blue, it's so unique. I really like to get to know individuals on the river. I start out observing their behaviour and then once they're used to me I can get closer. It's the interaction with them, the connection with an individual, meeting them, getting to know them, that does it for me.

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How did you first get interested in them?

I was at a loose end in a completely unrelated career and I used to walk along the river near my house with my dog and I just started noticing them. From watching them I learnt a bit about their behaviour and wanted to find out more. I started photographing them and that's when fate introduced me to Charlie Hamilton James. Charlie is a kingfisher god and he taught me so much about how to go about filming them and their nests. I admire Charlie greatly for his work and knowledge and owe him a lot for all he taught me. It all kicked off from there and I was fortunate enough to work with him and fellow Springwatch cameraman RichardÌýon .

Everything I've done in my filming career up until now has been part of a timeline of events involving kingfishers. I spend all my spare time with them.

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Was it always filming them that captivatedÌýyou?

I love filming kingfishers, and I'm so lucky to be able to do it for a living. But photographing and filming them is only part of my passion. I can spend hours just sitting and watching, and I've learnt so much about them. Where they nest, what they eat, what banks they use in different rivers, what predates them, what they do in winter and spring...

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What are your favourite kingfisher facts then?

Oh there's so many. When I was working with Charlie Hamilton James filming them, we made the discovery that kingfishers in the UK predate signal crayfish. These are an invasive species and we caught footage of kingfishers taking them into the nest. It was a great find for us.

Kingfisher biology is pretty amazing. They have an eyelid which they close when diving called the nictitating membrane and they don't actually have any blue pigment in their feathers: the blue we see is just iridescence. The feathers are actually a dull grey.

ÌýKingfisher feathers © Ian Llewellyn

They can dive, hit the water, catch a fish and be back on their perch in under two seconds, so they're amazingly fast. The famous footage of a fighting kingfisher falling prey to a mink shown on Springwatch last week is actually a very rare sighting. We know that rats, sparrowhawks and other animals prey on kingfishers but there are no other recorded cases of mink doing it.

Oh and kingfishers can have up to three broods in a year!

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How long do you spend with the kingfishers when you're filming and what's your average day like?

Up to about 14 hours is usual for a standard day observing. Filming for Springwatch on the River Wensum this year I was submerged up to my chest in a very cramped hide so I only spent eight hours there!

I try to get to the kingfishers between 4am and 5am in the morning. The light is nicest around this time and there's usually a scenic fog along the river. It's good to establish yourself before they start their daily routine. The males will roost outside over night and the females will sleep with the eggs. They get up with the light and I like to be there to catch any behaviours. You never know what you might miss.

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Do individual kingfisher's characters vary greatly?

Yes I think so. I've watched so many, I followed one female for a whole year once and they do have different traits. In general though kingfishers are very charismatic. The usual perception of them is as shy, elusive birds but they're actually remarkably inquisitive. Once they've established that you're not a threat, you become part of the landscape to them. They relax and get really curious. I've had them perch on my wellies, come right into the hide and even fish from the roof of it.

Juvenile kingfisher in low threat posture © Ian Llewellyn

They're also very aggressive to other kingfishers. Their relationships balance on a knife edge. They actually spend half of the year on their own. They separate in the autumn and winter alone, dividing the territory up and defending it fiercely. There's a finite amount of fish so they need to! Even mating pairs have a love-hate relationship, and when they first come together again to mate they'll face off with aggressive postures.

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What do you recommend people do if they are interested in kingfishers?

The best way of seeing them is catching that glimpse along the river. You'll always hear them first so listen out for a and then watch for them. I've filmed them underground and under water in stunning locations but my freshest memories are still those brief flashes of blue. The quintessential kingfisher sighting, it's just so..."river"!

There's also loads of brilliant books and blogs online that you can follow. There's actually 86 species of kingfisher around the world: pied kingfishers, ruddy kingfishers, paradise, malachite, giant and pigmy and so on. Some of them are spectacularly beautiful so look out for those if you're abroad too.

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Watch Ian's Kingfisher Diary from Springwatch 2010:

• Kingfisher family life
• Kingfishers courting and mating
• The kingfishers fledge in the final part of the diary