Belted Kingfisher Gallery
Megaceryle alcyon
eBird has this description of the Belted Kingfisher: Stocky and large-headed with a shaggy crest. Bill is long, straight, thick, and pointed. Powder blue above with white underparts and blue breast band. Females have additional rusty band across belly. Almost always solitary, perched along edges of streams, lakes, and estuaries. Flies along rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls. Hunts for fish by plunging headfirst into the water, either directly from a perch or hovering. All About Birds gives this additional descriptive information for the Belted Kingfisher: With its top-heavy physique, energetic flight, and piercing rattle, the Belted Kingfisher seems to have an air of self-importance as it patrols up and down rivers and shorelines. It nests in burrows along earthen banks and feeds almost entirely on aquatic prey, diving to catch fish and crayfish with its heavy, straight bill. These ragged-crested birds are a powdery blue-gray; males have one blue band across the white breast, while females have a blue and a chestnut band.
I saw my first Belted Kingfisher on my dock on the afternoon of Saturday, October 10, 2020. I watched as the bird dove into the water then returned to my dock. Unfortunately I was unable to get a photograph of this bird. But, on the morning of Monday, October 12, 2020, I was in New Braunfels running errands and I stopped by River Acres Park located at Common Street and the Guadalupe River. I spotted a Belted Kingfisher in flight, and watched as he perched on the bridge for a couple of minutes before taking flight again. The photos are not the best, but I was delighted to get them!
On the morning of November 3, 2020, I stopped by River Acres Park in New Braunfels. As I was crossing the Common Street bridge, I spotted a Belted Kingfisher on the rail of the bridge. I parked, but the bird flew before I could get into position to take a picture. I decided to sit by the river and see if patience would pay off. I started scanning the trees on the opposite side of the river and sure enough I spotted the Belted Kingfisher, perched high up on a tree. Here is one of the pictures I took of him in the tree.
Mid-morning Monday, January 16, 2023, I was sitting in my home office and noticed a bird land on the railing of the upper level of my boathouse. I grabbed my binoculars and saw that the bird was a male Belted Kingfisher. I got my camera and watched him fish for about 4 minutes. He would swoop down to the water from my boathouse then fly up to my neighbor’s boathouse located about 65 feet to the south. I managed to get a couple of decent photos of this entertaining fellow!
“Cool Facts” about the Belted Kingfisher from All About Birds:
- The breeding distribution of the Belted Kingfisher is limited in some areas by the availability of suitable nesting sites. Human activity, such as road building and digging gravel pits, has created banks where kingfishers can nest and allowed the expansion of the breeding range.
- The Belted Kingfisher is one of the few bird species in which the female is more brightly colored than the male. Among the nearly 100 species of kingfishers, the sexes often look alike. In some species the male is more colorful, and in others the female is.
- During breeding season the Belted Kingfisher pair defends a territory against other kingfishers. A territory along a stream includes just the streambed and the vegetation along it, and averages 0.6 mile long. The nest burrow is usually in a dirt bank near water. The tunnel slopes upward from the entrance, perhaps to keep water from entering the nest. Tunnel length ranges from 1 to 8 feet.
- As nestlings, Belted Kingfishers have acidic stomachs that help them digest bones, fish scales, and arthropod shells. But by the time they leave the nest, their stomach chemistry apparently changes, and they begin regurgitating pellets which accumulate on the ground around fishing and roosting perches. Scientists can dissect these pellets to learn about the kingfisher’s diet without harming or even observing any wild birds.
- Belted Kingfishers wander widely, sometimes showing up in the Galapagos Islands, Hawaii, the British Isles, the Azores, Iceland, Greenland, and the Netherlands.
- Pleistocene fossils of Belted Kingfishers (to 600,000 years old) have been unearthed in Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas. The oldest known fossil in the kingfisher genus is 2 million years old, found in Alachua County, Florida.