Belted Kingfisher

This time of year is a delight, as I slowly start to see returning or emerging species that haven't been around for the winter. In the past couple of weeks, a belted king fisher has become a daily visitor on the Wood River in front of my office window. These boisterous birds make their presence known by conspicuously flying back and forth low over the water while giving out a long, rattling cry. They are a little larger than a robin, with blue gray backs and heads and a blue gray belt across their otherwise white chests and bellies. Both sexes have a ragged crest on their heads, looking a little like an unkempt punk hairstyle. The females have an extra rust colored belt lower on their chest, making it easy to distinguish the sexes.

A search through a couple of the birding books in the WPWA library uncovered an interesting book printed in 1958 called "1001 Questions Answered About Birds" by Allan and Helen Cruickshank. Some of the fun facts about belted kingfishers I gathered from this book are:

• Kingfishers are one of the few families of birds where the female is considered more colorful than the males.
• Their nests are built in tunnels which they excavate along the banks of rivers and lakes.
• Both the males and females take active roles in caring for the young.
• The young emerge from their eggs completely naked, with no natal down at all. They grow right into their juvenile plumage.
• Kingfishers will patrol a regular stretch along a river, protecting it from others of their species and keeping it as their own feeding grounds. This stretch may be up to a mile in length.
• When hunting for fish, the kingfisher will often hover above the water before plunging in and grabbing the fish with their beaks.
• Besides fish, kingfishers will eat crayfish, salamanders, frogs, tadpoles, mice and insects.

I am looking forward to spending the summer with these industrious, noisy birds.