Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Belted Kingfisher Is A Minnow Predator
By: Tom Berg
If you spend much time along lakes and waterways during the warm-weather months, you will likely see one of my favorite birds: the belted kingfisher. These birds are slightly larger than a robin, and they are an interesting blue-gray color above with a white belly and a white ring around their neck. Males have a blue band across the chest and females have a blue and rust-colored band (or belt) on their chest. That’s why they are called belted kingfishers! They have a crest on top of their head and long, pointed black bill.
Kingfishers spend most of their time alone, sitting on a bare branch overhanging shallow water where they might find minnows or other small fish. As their name implies, fish make up the bulk of their diet, and they are very adept at diving head-first into the water and catching minnows. It is not unusual to see kingfishers diving and catching minnows one after another, especially in clear, shallow water. In addition to small fish, kingfishers also eat crayfish, snails, insects, frogs and even small water snakes.
During mating season, belted kingfishers find a mate and excavate a nest in soft earthen banks near the water. Vertical banks are preferred since the sheer walls deter predators. Most nest tunnels are three to six feet deep, and the tunnel always runs slightly uphill to keep water out.
When kingfisher eggs hatch in the nest, the babies are initially fed partially digested fish or tiny bits of fish. Both the male and female hunt and feed the young. As the fledgling birds grow larger, they are given whole fish which they swallow in one big gulp.
One interesting fact about belted kingfishers is that the baby birds have acids in their stomachs that help them digest fish bones, fish scales, crayfish shells and even mollusk shells. By the time the young birds fledge, however, the acids are gone and they start regurgitating pellets, similar to owls. But unlike owl pellets, kingfisher pellets contain fish bones, not mouse bones!
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