{"id":239,"date":"2017-11-03T18:09:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T18:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/?p=239"},"modified":"2017-11-05T18:16:04","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T18:16:04","slug":"the-bird-with-bedhead-the-belted-kingfisher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/2017\/11\/03\/the-bird-with-bedhead-the-belted-kingfisher\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bird with Bedhead: The Belted Kingfisher"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A female Belted Kingfisher perched on a branch. (Retrieved from www.Audubon.org<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The belted kingfisher is a marvelous bird. Their colors, flying maneuvers, and mesmerizing sounds are sure to grab your attention if the Mohawk-like feathers on the top of its head don’t already! Does it not look like this bird just rolled out of bed?\u00a0 Contrary to how they appear, belted kingfishers act with elegance. In addition to Belted Kingfisher, these birds are known by their scientific name \u00a0Megaceryle alcyon. <\/em>This named was derived from the Latin words mega, ceryle, and alcedo, meaning great, bird, and kingfisher, respectively (Helm 2010<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Kingfishers are really great birds. Their most obvious features include their long pointed bill, their bright blue and white coloration, and their spiked up hair on top of their head (Cornell Lab 2017<\/a>). If you have seen a belted kingfisher, you may have noticed that they are medium-sized and differ in feather color. The difference in feather coloration can be explained by dimorphism – when males and females look different (Schablein 2012<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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A female (left) and male (right) belted kingfisher in a courtship ritual (taken by\u00a0Mike Lentz<\/a>).<\/p><\/div>\n

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Both sexes are short and stalky with slate-blue and white feathers. A blue band of feathers across the chest is present under a white collar separating the blue head. Male and females have a short black and white striped tail, and long wings with white patches on the upper wing. Although male and female belted kingfishers do share some qualities, the male has a white under-body and the female’s feathers are a brighter blue. In addition to a blue band of feathers across the females chest, she also has a band of reddish-brown feathers below, extending above her legs (Cornell Lab 2017<\/a>). Young birds take on the appearance of both parents, with their chest showing a band of mixed blue and reddish-brown. The crest of blue feathers on top of the adult’s heads is darker in young birds (Arkive 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Belted kingfishers live all across North America, spanning from Alaska to Central America, from the West to East coast (Cornell Lab 2017<\/a>; What Bird 2017<\/a>). You are likely to see them at estuaries, streams, lakes, rivers, and ponds where they prey on fish and other aquatic animals. You may even see them along coastal regions as they migrate down south for the Winter towards the Southern United States and Central America (Arkive 2017<\/a>). Belted Kingfishers breed in North America within Alaska, Canada, and the Northern United States over quite a large range – 10.3 million square kilometers to be exact (What Bird 2017<\/a>)!<\/p>\n

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The distribution of the Belted Kingfisher during the Summer, the Winter, and year-round (from the\u00a0Cornell Lab of Ornithology<\/a>).<\/p><\/div>\n

Where ever a kingfisher lives within this range, they will create a burrow to serve as their nest using their feet with fused middle toes, and bill (Schablein 2012<\/a>). Along the water body where the birds fish, they search for steep, exposed dirt banks to build their nest in. Both male and female kingfishers work at constructing a burrow or tunnel nest usually in a higher region of a steep bank to provide protection against flooding and predation (Arkive 2017<\/a>; Cornell Lab 2017<\/a>). The entrance of the burrows is also angled steeply upwards towards the nest to prevent flooding.\u00a0Belted kingfishers use human-made gravel pits to nest in as well.<\/p>\n

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A male and female belted kingfisher entering a burrow nest within a dirt bank ( from\u00a0http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com<\/a>).<\/p><\/div>\n

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They vigorously defend their nests from other kingfishers but have been seen to share the tunnel to their nest with swallows, who create their own nests in extensions of the tunnel (What Bird 2017<\/a>)! Typically, belted kingfishers will produce five to eight eggs per clutch once a year, which hatch into little blind naked kingfishers after 22 to 24 days (Cornell Lab 2017<\/a>). Both the male and female incubate the eggs.<\/p>\n

In addition to requiring dirt or sandbanks to live, belted kingfishers also need a region where the water is clear enough for them to see fish, and where riparian vegetation exists, that is where plants grow beside the water. Belted kingfishers use extending branches or wood posts to perch on so they can locate their prey in the water below (Schablein 2012<\/a>).<\/p>\n

These birds primarily eat small fish near the surface or in shallow water, but will also consume crayfish, insects and snails, amphibians and reptiles, young birds and small mammals, and even small berries (Celestine 2014<\/a>; What Bird 2017<\/a>). Once they have seen their prey Kingfishers will directly dive for prey from their perch or will hover above the water to heights reaching 15 meters, and dive down to catch their prey. (Arkive 2017<\/a>; Celestine 2014<\/a>). Belted kingfishers dive head first straight down or spiraling, catching their prey with their bill (Schablein 2012<\/a>). If their prey wasn’t speared on impact, kingfishers will return to their perch with the fish in their bill by swimming up and out of the water. Once at their perch the bird will either pierce the fish with its bill or strike it against their perch until it is dead or unconscious (Celestine 2014<\/a>). To eat the fish, kingfishers swallow it head first, sometimes after a victory toss of the fish in the air. To see a belted kingfisher in predatory action, check out the video below!<\/p>\n