Belted Kingfishers

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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.

Belted Kingfishers need access to bodies of water for feeding, and vertical earthen banks for nesting. They hunt in unclouded water that allows them to see prey below the surface, with perches nearby but minimal vegetation obstructing the water. During the breeding season Belted Kingfishers breed throughout most of North America at elevations up to 9,000 feet. They winter in similar habitats, as well as in mangroves, swamps, and brackish lagoons.

Belted Kingfishers live mostly on a diet of fish. They also eat crayfish and may eat other crustaceans, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals, and even berries. A kingfisher looks for prey from a perch that overhangs water, such as a bare branch, telephone wire, or pier piling. When it spots a fish or crayfish near the surface, it takes flight, dives with closed eyes, and grabs the prey in its bill with a pincer motion. Returning with its prize, it pounds the prey against the perch before swallowing it head first. As nestlings, Belted Kingfishers digest the bones and scales they consume, but by the time they leave the nest they begin disgorging pellets of fish skeletons and invertebrate shells.

Belted Kingfishers excavate burrows in earthen banks, usually avoiding ones with vegetation (especially trees, whose roots get in the way of digging). They generally choose a bank near water, but may use a ditch, road cut, landfill, sand pit, or gravel pit far from water. A pair may select a nest site during courtship, usually high in the bank where floodwaters are unlikely to reach. The male and the female take turns digging the burrow, with males spending about twice as much time digging as females. They usually take 3–7 days to finish it.  The completed burrow extends 3–6 feet into the bank, sloping upward so that rainwater won’t collect inside, and ends in an unlined chamber 8–12 inches in diameter and 6–7 inches high.

Belted Kingfishers spend most of the year alone until they pair up during the breeding season. Males establish territories, which usually conform to the shape of the stream or shoreline. Belted Kingfishers are monogamous within each breeding season but form new pairs every year. The male feeds the female while courting her. Both members of the pair vigorously defend their territory by chasing away intruders while giving loud rattle calls. Predators of kingfishers include hawks, mammals, and snakes. When a Belted Kingfisher suspects an intruder in its territory, it may land on a perch and heave its body up and down with its crest elevated, or fly back and forth along the water, rattling noisily until the intruder leaves. If threatened, it may scream, spread its wings, and raise the patch of white feathers next to each eye.