Photo courtesy Jeff Reichel
This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the belted kingfisher.
If there was a poster bird for the punk rock music movement it would most certainly be the belted kingfisher. With its proud blue Johnny Rotten crest, aerial tactics (hovering and diving for fish with reckless abandon), and “don’t bother me” mentality, one can only chalk up semi-rare sightings of this truly unique bird with admiration. A species whose entire lifespan relies on access to aquatic food sources, the belted kingfisher finds refuge alongside the geothermally infused water of our downtown San Juan River and proximate wetlands year-round. Kingfishers have unique habitat requirements, consisting of steep, pocketed river or shore banks conducive to both aerial perches for spotting and predating on fish fry, as well as for covert bank burrowing for nesting. During breeding season, a pair of kingfishers may claim a near half mile of riverfront property for their associated responsibilities and defend this territory from other interlopers. They typically form new mates each year.
These birds are not much larger than a robin with a roundish body and pointed wings. Both sexes appear slate blue when viewed from behind, lesser a white collar. In this instance, females have more coloration than the males, donning two belts: one blue and one chestnut brown across a white breast. Males only have the single blue stripe. If you look close, the space between their oversized pointed bill and dark black eye or “lore” has a single white spot. But, more times than not, it will be their seemingly agitated-sounding rattle that gets your attention, as if to say, “Why’d you have to come and spoil a good time?” These birds are found east to west across North America, its cousin to the south being the ringed kingfisher in Central and South America.
Admirably, belted kingfishers dig tunnels up to 6 feet deep into earthen banks to secure safe nesting locations, often requiring a week to excavate. Both mates share incubation duties of five to eight eggs (average one brood per year), feeding young partially digested fish until they are old enough to feed on whole fish. Interestingly, adult birds are known to regurgitate pellets, in the same vein that a number of raptors do, consisting of fish scales and bones. This species also predates on crayfish, insects, small amphibians, reptiles and birds, and is even known to eat berries in season.
Keep an eye (and an ear) out for this species as you stroll along the river. During the warm months, these birds are often spotted near the Ross Aragon Community Center ponds looking for a snack. Though currently stable, the biggest concerns regarding belted kingfishers and their ongoing population involve habitat degradation and human disturbance.
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Photo courtesy Jeff Reichel