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Megaceryle alcyon
A medium sized kingfisher that is found throughout the United States. Outside of Texas, this will be the primary kingfisher species. Larger than the Green Kingfisher of central and south Texas, but smaller than the South Texas specialty the Ringed Kingfisher. There are places in central texas (San Marcos) and south Texas (Edinburg) where you can usually achieve a kingbird trifecta! The female has a rust colored belly as seen in the first image, where as the male has the plan colored belly as seen in the second.
Always near water. It can be found in the middle of the woods near a creek, on the side of the road near a ditch, or even in a surburban lake
Spotted on Jan 10, 2013
Submitted on Jan 11, 2013
12 Comments
Cody-We have these Belted Kingfishers up here (north-western Minnesota) all summer. I have yet to get a closeup of them like you've gotten here. Bravo, you! Actually many of your winter images are birds we see up here from spring through fall. When they leave, its like the the week after Christmas when the holidays are over and all the glitter and bling comes down. Its sooo cool to see them in their winter homes. Thank you again, for sharing these beautiful images!!
Yep, thanks FD. It's also note worthy that of all the Kingfishers, if I'm not mistaken, the belted is the only one where the female is more vibrant than the male!
Nice spotting Cody!
Belted Kingfishers are one of the few species of birds that the females are more colorful than the males!
No worries RiekoS, I do a lot of skim reading too!! So I understood why you missed it, it's all about the pictures ;-). And thanks Atul!
Awesome !!
Sorry, I did not read carefully.
And, thank you very much for your explanation again.
RiekoS - thanks for the comment. In the end of my initial description I notate that the first bird photographed is the female having the rust colored band. The second bird from a nearby location has no rust colored band which ID's it down to a Male. Cheers!
So lovely!
It's all about the fish I keep in my car ;-)
Hate you for this...I have such horrible pictures of kingfishers and you get a beautiful one! So jealous
Great catch. That's a difficult bird to get. Thanks for sharing.
Cute!