BELTED KINGFISHER FACTS

BELTED KINGFISHER FACTS

Male 

1. The term "kingfisher" means "king of the fishers."

2. It is more interesting to look into the meaning of the scientific words for the belted kingfisher. "Mega" translates to "big" and "ceryle" comes from the Greek word for "seabird". The second name, "alcyon", comes from Greek also and goes back centuries into Greek mythology. According to myth, a lady named Alcyon grieved so much for her drowned husband that the gods took pity and turned them both into kingfishers.

3. The Belted Kingfisher is a large bird that is bigger than a pigeon. It can grow up to 13 inches long. It looks top-heavy because of its large head. The head looks big because of the very large crest of feathers on the top that resembles a shaggy Mohawk. It also has a large beak that is long and sharp.

4. The bird is colorful with a bluish-gray body, white belly, and white collar around its neck. Both males and females have a bluish breastband, but the females have another chestnut-colored breastband, as well.

5. Unlike many birds, the female kingfisher is more colorful than the male! Most male birds are more colorful than female birds. However, unlike many birds, the female kingfisher is more colorful than the male.

6. The Belted Kingfisher is a bird that frequents water ways and shorelines. It can be found patrolling the banks of streams, rivers, and lakes looking for food. It sits on favorite perches watching for food and defending its territory from other kingfishers.

7. Both the male and female dig a nest burrow that tunnels in the bank of sand, clay or gravel. This tunnel may be as long as 8 feet with a nesting chamber at the end.  The tunnel slopes upwards from the entrance to keep it from flooding during heavy rains. The female lays 5-8 white, glossy eggs in its tunnel nest.

8. The Belted kingfisher is the only migratory kingfisher in North America and one of only 11 kingfisher species worldwide that exhibit seasonal movements.

9. The breast band on juvenile birds is a mixture of cinnamon or brown and slaty blue. Juvenile males have a tinge of faint rufous along their flanks, and juvenile females have a faint rufous belly band.

10. Unlike other perching birds, two of the kingfisher’s toes are fused for much of their length, a useful arrangement for digging burrows yet challenging for walking.

11. Fish that swim in shallow waters or near the surface are the primary food choice, but Belteds will also eat crayfish, young birds, aquatic invertebrates, and amphibians.

12. Belteds typically excavate gently upward-sloping tunnels deep into earthen banks for their nests, but burrows have also been found in beaver-generated mud slides, root wads of fallen trees, sand dunes, sawdust piles, sand and gravel pits, and roadcuts.

13. The Belted Kingfisher eats mostly fish, but other water animals as well such as crayfish, salamanders, and mollusks.

14. The kingfisher has an unusual style of hunting for food. It watches for prey from favorite perches along the bank or patrols over certain areas of water looking for prey. When it spies its prey, it flies above the prey and then hovers in place. To catch its prey, it plunges headfirst into the water. It catches the prey in its bill and then returns to its perch. Once on the perch, it pounds the prey on its perch to kill it.

15. Wherever there is good fishing on either salt or fresh water, you can be sure to find the Belted Kingfisher.  They gaze into the water, in search of fish, and will dive head first into the water to catch their prey.

16. Generally, these are solitary birds and they are territorial, constantly chasing other Kingfishers away. You will know that a Kingfisher is your area by their constant loud call, which sounds much like a machine gun!     

17. To teach their young how to plunge into the water, the parents will often throw dead fish into the water.

Female

18. The Belted Kingfisher, is a blue-gray bird with a large head, heavy black bill, white collar, and a shaggy crest.

19. The females have a colorful band around their chest and the males don't.

20. Belted Kingfishers often sit high on electric high wires above feeders.

21. They will sometimes fly under the water to escape attacks from peregrine falcons and hawks.

22. Kingfishers will dive for fish under the water, then return to a perch, where they beat the fish on a limb, then toss it into the air and swallow it head first. 

23. They nest by digging burrows on the banks of canals, lakes, and ponds.

24. They are Carnivores.

25. How is a kingfisher like an owl?  Belted Kingfishers regurgitate pellets of bones, scales and indigestible materials like owls.

26. Kingfishers escape from predators such as owls, and hawks by diving into the water at the last minute.

27. The Belted Kingfisher is one of the few bird species in which the female is more brightly colored than the male. Within the 93 species of kingfishers, the sexes often look alike.

28. The breeding 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.