Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Belted Kingfisher

Megaceryle alcyon

Description:

Size & Shape Belted Kingfishers are stocky, large-headed birds with a shaggy crest on the top and back of the head and a straight, thick, pointed bill. Their legs are short and their tails are medium length and square-tipped. Color Pattern These kingfishers are powder blue above with fine, white spotting on the wings and tail. The underparts are white with a broad, blue breast band. Females also have a broad rusty band on their bellies. Juveniles show irregular rusty spotting in the breast band. Behavior Belted Kingfishers spend much of their time perched alone along the edges of streams, lakes, and estuaries, searching for small fish. They also fly quickly up and down rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls. They hunt either by plunging directly from a perch, or by hovering over the water, bill downward, before diving after a fish they’ve spotted.

Habitat:

Kingfishers live near streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and estuaries. They nest in burrows that they dig into soft earthen banks, usually adjacent to or directly over water. Kingfishers spend winters in areas where the water doesn’t freeze so that they have continual access to their aquatic foods.

Notes:

This is a male kingfisher.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

AshleyHewitt
AshleyHewitt 11 years ago

thanks! yeah the kingfisher wasn't too happy with me. I had my dog with me too so he was yelling at us

JamesFunk
JamesFunk 11 years ago

Nice picture...these things are hard to sneak up on...

DaneCole
DaneCole 11 years ago

Very nice photos, great spotting!

AshleyHewitt
Spotted by
AshleyHewitt

Newton, New Jersey, USA

Spotted on Jan 1, 2013
Submitted on Jan 1, 2013

Related Spottings

Belted Kingfisher Belted Kingfisher Belted Kingfisher Belted Kingfisher

Nearby Spottings

Eastern Phoebe Meadow Vole Spotting Spotting
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team