Belted Kingfisher

Megaceryle alcyon

Introduction

The Belted Kingfisher’s mechanical rattling calls are a familiar sound heard along edges of streams, lakes, ponds and estuaries. The call is given at the slightest disturbance and people are likely to hear the bird before seeing it. It is widespread throughout North America breeding in most of Canada and the United States. It winters at northern latitudes if open water is available and, in the southern USA, Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean and northern coastal South America.

Identification

Adult Male (spring/summer)

Head is steely blue with shaggy crest on crown extending down the nape. The eyes are black and there is a white spot in the supraloral area. Bill is straight, black, thick and pointed. The chin and throat are white, which extends around to the lower nape. A breast band with a central extension into the belly is slate blue. Belly and undertail coverts are white. Flanks are slate blue. The back, scapulars, rump and uppertail coverts are slate blue. Coverts are slate blue with faint white tips. Primaries and are dark blackish blue with a white patch at the base. Secondaries are blackish slate blue with faint white barring and tips. The tail is slate blue-black with faint white bars and tips. Feet are black.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Similar to Adult Male but female has second reddish brown breast band below blue breast band and reddish brown flanks.

Juvenile

Similar to adult male but have irregular rusty spotting in the breast band and reddish brown flanks.

General Information

General:

Stocky, large-headed bird with a shaggy crest on the top and back of the head. Its bill is straight, thick and pointed. Length: 28-35cm. Wing: 48-58cm. Weight: 140-170grams.

Behaviour:

The Belted Kingfisher hunts by watching the water from perches and plunging for prey headfirst. Prey is caught with its large bill. Occasionally it hovers over the water before diving for prey. They often fly following the course of the waterway uttering the loud rattling call in flight. Kingfishers have a distinct pattern of wingbeats, unlike any other group of birds. The wingbeats are intermittent and irregular, without a regular rhythm of flapping and gliding. Short bursts of two or three quick wingbeats are separated by intervals with several slower wingbeats. The path of flight is level. Eats mainly small fishes. They also eat crustaceans, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals and even berries.

Habitat:

The Belted Kingfisher is found wherever there is water, whether along seacoasts or along brooks, creeks, ponds, lakes or mountain streams. Within its territory it has regularly used perches from which it perches to hunt.

Information:

The Belted Kingfisher is the only kingfisher north of Texas. They are mainly solitary except when paired in nesting season. They dig burrows into cliffs along creeks and rivers for nesting, which may be 3-6 feet deep sloping upward so that rainwater will not collect inside. The burrow ends in an unlined chamber 8-12 inches in diameter and 6-7 inches high. They dig the nest burrow and chamber with their bills, then push out the dirt with their feet. The male and female usually incubate the eggs and brood and feed the young about equally. The clutch consists of 5-8 pure white eggs.

Similar species:

Conservation Status:

Listed as Least Concern. Belted Kingfishers are common and widespread.

Maps & Statistics

Capture Rates

Belted Kingfisher is regular in Colony Farm Regional Park but not common in the old fields where we band and captures have been limited to just two individuals.

Ageing and Sexing (Band Size: 3A, 3B, 3 WITH CAUTION!)

Molt Summary

PF: HY/SY limited-incomplete; PB: AHY/ASY incomplete-complete; PA absent.
preformative molt occurs on the winter grounds and can include some or all body plumage, sometimes some or all rects, but few if any wing coverts. Juvenal primary coverts are retained.
Adult PBs: 1-3 juvenal primaries (among P2-P6), all but 1-4 outer primary coverts, and 1-6 juvenal secondaries (among S2-S6), usually in a block, and often symmetrical in both wings, can be retained during the 2nd PB; 1-6 adult secondaries (among S1-S8, seldom in a block and not symmetrical in both wings, and an irregular number of primary coverts can be retained during subsequent PBs.

Juvenile HY/SY

September - August

Juvenile has more rufous feathering in the breast band than later plumages; Juvenile M and F are reliably separated by the extent of rufous in the lower breast and by the colour of the longest underwing axillar.

Juvenile M: Belly white with an incomplete, rufous band; longest underwing axillar white.

Juvenile F: Belly with a complete or nearly complete, rufous band; longest underwing axillar cinnamon.

HY/SY

June - May/December

Upper bluish breast band  heavily washed or mixed with rufous (Aug-Dec), or with some brighter blue formative feathers (Oct-Sep); pp, ss,  and p covs uniformly juvenile, without molt clines; juv outer pp and rects relatively abraded , brown, narrow and tapered, the black shaft streaks of the c. rects averaging broader by sex.

AHY/ASY

September - August/January

Upper blue breast band  without rufous; pp covs, and ss uniformly basic, blackish and with molt clines ; outer pp and rects relatively fresh, blackish, broad, and truncate, the black shaft streaks of the c. rects averaging narrower by sex.