A PREEMINENT
BEACH PRESENCE
The Kingfisher
Watercolor
painting by Beach Watcher Frances Wood*
Digital image used with permission. Copyright 2005.
Kingfishers are a bird that novice as well as experienced birdwatchers and beach walkers revel in hearing and seeing.
Although when quietly
perched above water in an overhanging tree branch they may not always
be readily visible, there is really nothing shy and retiring about
Belted kingfishers. For at other times they will be right
out there in plain view, perched on that favored tree or shrub branch
above the water, or perhaps hovering over the water -- but conspicuous,
and loud -- frequently sending forth their readily identifiable,
unmistakable, not to be ignored, long harsh, rattle-like call.
Their profile and stunning plumage is also unique and easy to remember
from sighting to sighting. They're somewhat top-heavy, stocky
birds with short necks and large heads topped with prominant shaggy
crests, and they have long, heavy, pointed bills well adapted to
fishing. They're commonly dubbed "fishers" for good reason.
Male and female appear quite similar. In fact, it's one of
the few North American bird species that finds the female's plumage
more colorful than the male's. But both sexes are attractively feather
attired; dazzling slate blue-gray above with contrasting white collars
and undersides and blue-gray breast bands. The female's additional
coloration is a chestnut-hued band across her belly and flanks.
Kingfishers are quite territorial-- can often be found day after
day in the same locale. And while within home territory "the
fishers" have regularly used perches -- hang-outs atop branches
-- lookouts of choice. Dead limbs seemingly preferrable for
such spots.
There we'll see them -- short legs not visible -- almost appearing
legless -- scoping the waters below for their favored prey -- small
fishes. Or perhaps they'll be hovering like miniature helicopters
20-40' above the water, again carefully scanning for food.
Handsomeness aside, one can perceive that determined, steadfast,
focused look and manner when looking more closely at a kingfisher
in such hunting mode. And as they visually search the water
below there is no doubt in an onlooker's mind that this is very
serious stuff -- this food foraging.
And suddenly: the plunge! Forceful and direct -- headfirst into
the water. Not the most productive of fish grabbers, it may
take repeated dives -- probably sending forth a loud rattle as it
moves along to another spot.
But once the kingfisher does nail a small fish, it will return to
its perch where it actually rather coarsely beats the fish against
the branch, tosses it into the air to aid in proper positioning,
catches it, and finally swallows it headfist.
Their dapper, stylish appearance tends to fade a bit further post-mealtime
as they then regurgitate a pellet of bones, scales, and parts they
are unable to digest.
Fairly solitary birds most of the year, kingfishers are most often
seen singly. Not too surprising, however, things change as
breeding season approaches in the spring or summer, culminating
in the birth of young. Young that are reared by both male and female
in a 12 inch nesting chamber at the end of a 3-7, at times, 15 foot
long nesting burrow in an embankment they spent 2-3 weeks taking
turns excavating.
The parents will teach their offspring to fish by dropping dead
fish into the water for them to recapture, and the young themselves
have been observed repeatedly dropping small sticks in the water
and fetching them in preparation of fish capturing.
But going back to the enbankment burrow. The Cornell Lab of
Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology states that "The nest chamber
is unlined, but that once the birds begin to incubate, regurgitated
pellets of undigested fish and insect parts may accumulate, somewhat
cushioning the eggs". So the terminal embankment nesting chambers
are often lined with, instead of soft plant life, of all things,
those regurgitated fish bones and scales, and such!
What's the appropriate comment or closing statement here?
To each its own home? Home is where the regurgitated bones are?
There's no place like my bone-lined home? My old Kentucky bone home?
Whadayathink?
Pat Nash
Beach Watcher
Class of '94
*Artist, writer, teacher and Beach Watcher Frances Wood is also the author of the book Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West, published in 2004 by Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, Colorado.