Ben here with another cool find from last week's VMNH Christmas bird count!

December 31, 2020

Ben here with another cool find from last week's VMNH Christmas bird count! We spotted this belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) at Doe Run Park in Martinsville, and it's a bird I'd been hoping to snap a photo of for quite a while.

This particular kingfisher is a male, and it's easy to tell the males and females apart in this species because the females have an additional rusty-colored patch on the breast. Belted kingfishers can most often be seen perched in trees overlooking bodies of water, just like the one in the photograph. They sit at these "watchpoints" studying the water and looking for fish swimming at the surface. When a kingfisher spots a tasty looking fish, it will drop from the tree, plunge head-first into the water, and snag the prey in its beak!

Kingfishers dig out their nests along the bank adjacent to a body of water. The nest takes the form of a long horizontal tunnel that gradually slopes uphill. That way, if the body of water floods, the chicks will be safe inside a little air pocket until the floodwaters recede.

Belted kingfishers can be found throughout virtually all of North America at one time of year or another. Here in Virginia, they're permanent year-round residents. Given their food preferences, you're not going to find a belted kingfisher at your bird feeder -- although if you happen to have a goldfish pond, you might find one perched in a tree above it!

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