This past weekend I decided to return to a little lake (it’s actually more like a pond) where I had previously seen some Hooded Merganser Ducks. This lake is part of a regional park and, according to posted signs, is stocked with trout.
As I was looking down at the water, I was surprised when a powder blue bird flew across my field of view. It was a pretty good size bird, but I didn’t have a clue what it was. It perched on a tree across the small lake and I was able to get a couple of shots to help me identify it. I came back later in the weekend and found the bird again and was able to take some additional photos. None of the photos yet is very good, but I thought I would share some of them, because I find the bird to be exceptionally cool.
What is the bird that has me so excited? It is a female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology article, the Belted Kingfisher is one of the few bird species in which the female is more colorful than the male. In a couple of my photos you can see the blue and chestnut bands across the breast of the female kingfisher (the male has only the blue band).
The Belted Kingfishers eat mostly fish and you can see a fish in the mouth of the bird in a couple of my photos. I suspected that the kingfisher swallows the fish whole, but I was too far away to see it happen. The same Cornell Lab article states that the kingfisher often dives from a perch, catches a fish and returns to the perch. It then pounds the prey against the perch before swallowing it head first.
As I mentioned, these photos were heavily cropped and are not that great in quality, but I hope to be able to take some better ones in the future. In addition to the shots of the bird in the tree, I am including one in which I attempted to photograph the bird in flight.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Impressed with these pictures. One time I sat water’s edge at the strip pit behind out house. A loon had been seen there. A kingfisher landed in the short tree right by me and dove in close enough to almost splash me. He didn’t return to perch over me. They are not a people-tolerant bird.
Thanks. I am getting introduced to a lot of different birds and it’s a real challenge trying to get decent photos of them. Strangely I don’t feel frustrated by the difficulty of getting a good photo–I realize that mostly it doesn’t depend on factors over which I have control/
I think they sometimes cooperate because they choose to.
Too cool, Mike. Obviously one of my favorites and the bird that prompted me to start my blog. Usually pretty hard to get close to those guys but when you hear their distinctive rattling call, you’ll know they’re around and typically have favorite perches to hunt from.
Thanks, Joe. I didn’t realize that was what prompted you to start your blog. Thanks for the tip on favorite perches. I think I know where this one hangs out and fortunately it’s only about three miles from where I live, so I may be able to take more (and better) photos.
Wonderful!
We have the hardest time trying to photograph a Kingfisher. Lucky you!
They are very hard to photograph as they move so quickly.. great photos. 🙂
Nice shots of another bird I’ve never met in person.
Thanks. I think I am fortunate to be in a place that is temperate enough to have certain birds year round and also to be on migration paths.I am constantly meeting new birds!
Mike, your photos are excellent compared to the ones I’ve managed to capture of kingfishers over the years. They’re fast flyers and whenever I see one, it always seems to be foggy, which makes it even more frustrating to take a good photo of them in the marsh.
[…] I first encountered this beautiful bird a couple of weeks ago and was immediately smitten. Like a paparazzi photographer, I started snapping photos frantically when I saw her. I included some of those photos in a previous posting that I creatively entitled “Belted Kingfisher.” […]