This past weekend I went back to locations where I have seen Belted Kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) in the past and encountered this male kingfisher (you may recall that the female has a chestnut stripe on her chest).
Initially he was on a wire above the stream, as shown in the second photo, but eventually he moved to a tree, where his pose looks more natural. He was pretty high in the tree and seemed to be surveying the entire area.
This was the first time that I was able to photograph the kingfisher with a longer lens and I had hoped to get some close-up shots. However, the kingfisher was not very cooperative this time and stayed close to the limit of the range of the lens. I was able to get pretty good detail in the first photo, however, despite a large amount of cropping, probably because I shot from a tripod.
As I said in a previous post, I enjoy stalking kingfishers—there is something about their look that I really like. I will continue to chase after them in search of better shots and hope they cooperate by staying in their current locations.
Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Great pose in that first shot. Hey, maybe you need a blind to hide in to get closer to your bird 🙂
Such a cool looking bird!! Great shots Mike, especially the first one!
It’s fun to find something you like and stalk it. Hopefully you meet up again.
Michael I tweeted this post and put it up on my facebook page to share. Your information and photos are just too good to not share. Thank you.