This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we have a high-waisted, rattling, regal angler wearily watching us: the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon).
The Belted Kingfisher is a stocky, compact bird found throughout the continental United States. It’s the only member of the Kingfisher family with a substantial range in our country. They can be found in the Lowcountry for most of the year but vanish in spring only to return in mid-summer. Belted Kingfishers nest in caverns that they tunnel into the side of river bluffs. When breeding season rolls around, they mostly leave our relatively level coast to head for more exaggerated geology further inland.
Kingfishers are about a foot in length with a robust build, blade-like bill, and a tall cranial-crest of feathers. Their mantle and mask are a watery shade of aluminum-blue that wraps across the breast and extends down to the flight feathers. Their primaries and tail feathers are a slate-gray and checkered by bars of white. In contrast to their dark backs are their icy-white bellies. Like their fellow angler the Osprey, female Belted Kingfishers sport a ruddy-brown waistband across the upper belly. The call of our Kingfisher is a loud rattling cry of rapid, aggressive, low-pitched squeaks. They issue this distinctive call universally in response to all manner of disturbances, be they greeting a mate, defending territory, or alerting to danger. Belted Kingfishers are notoriously hard to approach but easy to spot and observe from a distance.
Belted Kingfishers are piscivorous. They eat almost exclusively fish. In our tidal creeks, the ever present Mummichog is most often their target. Kingfishers hunt by sight. They perch atop a tree limb, shrub, or dock and scan the water for anything fishy. When something catches their eye, they burst from their perch and ascend into a hovering flight above their target. They linger in the air for a moment before diving headlong into the surf. With a splash they split the water, stabbing or snapping their bill into any unsuspecting fish that crosses their path. Using their natural buoyancy, they pop back to the surface and clap their wings against the water to launch themselves back into the air, returning to its preferred perch to enjoy a meal with a view. Kingfishers swallow their prey whole. So they make sure to thoroughly wallop their unlucky catch against their perch before gulping it down, bones and all.
