A beautiful female Belted Kingfisher posing for the camera
As you can probably tell from its name, the Belted Kingfisher is a bird that hangs out around water where it dives below the surface catching fish. They’re fairly easy to identify, having a very distinctive look, behavior, and sound. You’ll often hear them first, sometimes from a fair distance as they have a loud call. If you follow the sound you may be fortunate to see them hovering over the water or diving below it.
One interesting feature of the Belted Kingfisher is that the female is more colorful than the male, unlike most species where the male is the more colorful one. The female has a beautiful rusty band across her stomach, in contrast with the male who’s chest and stomach are white. They both have a white ring around their neck, and are otherwise blue-gray with a great little crest of feathers atop their head.
A female Belted Kingfisher flicking her tail up
A female Belted Kingfisher with her tail down
I was fortunate this particular female landed very close by, perching atop a bare snag, watching the water below. She was quiet while perched, but exhibited interesting physical behaviors, flicking her tail up and down periodically. You can see this in a couple of the photographs, one showing the tail up and the other showing it down.
These photos were created a number of years ago in mid-October at Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. It’s a fantastic wetlands park, home to many different species, and well worth a visit.
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