Belted Kingfisher

Ceryle alcyonOrder: CORACIIFORMESFamily: Kingfishers (Alcedinidae)

Related Birds

Green Heron
Lewis's Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Green Kingfisher
Ringed Kingfisher

General

Belted Kingfisher: Medium-sized kingfisher with a distinct, bushy crest, white collar, and large, dagger-like bill. Upperparts are blue-gray and underparts are white. Male has blue-gray breast band. Female has blue-gray breast band and chestnut-brown belly band.

Range and Habitat

Belted Kingfisher: Breeds from Alaska eastward across southern Canada and south throughout most of U.S. Spends winters on the Pacific coast north to southeastern Alaska, and throughout the south, north to the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coast to New England. Preferred habitats include rivers, lakes, and saltwater estuaries.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"rattle"

Interesting Facts

Belted Kingfishers have been known to share their tunnels with swallows. The swallows dig out small rooms tucked in the tunnel walls.

To avoid being eaten by hawks, they will dive into the water.

Human activity, such as digging gravel pits and building roads, have created banks where they can build nests and expand their breeding range.

A group of belted kingfishers are collectively known as a "crown" and a "rattle" of kingfishers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher: Medium kingfisher, distinct, bushy crest, white collar, and large, black dagger-like bill. Upperparts are blue-gray and underparts are white. The male has blue-gray breast band. Legs and feet are gray. Slow direct flight with erratic pattern. Hovers above water to search for prey.

● Song: "rattle"

● Foraging & Feeding: Belted Kingfisher: Eats fish, occasionally too long to swallow completely, accounting for sightings of fish tails sticking out from the bill; when fish are scarce, feeds on mollusks, crustaceans, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals, and berries. Plunge dives for prey.

● Breeding & nesting: Belted Kingfisher: Five to eight white eggs are laid in a nesting cavity at the end of a long tunnel excavated by the parents, usually in a riverbank of sand or clay. Incubation ranges from 22 to 24 days and is carried out by both parents, with the female sitting through the night, and the male taking her place in the early morning hours.

● Similar species: Belted Kingfisher: Ringed Kingfisher is larger and has an entirely red belly band.

Flight Pattern

Slow direct flight with somewhat erratic pattern., Hovers above water.

● Range & Habitat: Belted Kingfisher: Breeds from Alaska eastward across southern Canada and south throughout most of U.S. Spends winters on the Pacific coast north to southeastern Alaska, and throughout the south, north to the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic coast to New England. Preferred habitats include rivers, lakes, and saltwater estuaries.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationSlight decline

^MigrationSome migrate

^Weight5.2 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America