The kingfishers are a family of stocky, short-legged birds with large heads and heronlike beaks: of this family, only the Belted Kingfisher breeds in most of North America, from Alaska to the southern states. It inhabits salty marshes and freshwater streams, ponds and bays. A migratory bird, it fishes in the northern region in the summer and moves southwards to escape the cold – sometimes all the way to Central America. Belted Kingfisher is more than a foot long, with a large beak and an angry looking crest, slate blue above and white below. It gets its name from a blue gray band across the breast of both sexes – the female can be identified by a chestnut band across the belly. Its call is a distinctive loud, raspy rattle. Except for the breeding season, it is a solitary bird, perching on branches or posts near the water, plunging from there after fish. The Belted Kingfisher nests in a burrow dug by both male and female into the soil – the burrows can be as long as 15 feet, although they are typically shorter. Five to eight white eggs are laid in a domed chamber at the end of the burrow, and both sexes incubate for about 24 days. The helpless babies are brooded by the female until they are about five weeks old, when they leave the burrow and are taught to fish by their parents – there are reported sightings of what appear to be the provision of very forceful and purposeful “learning opportunities” to the young birds – upon “graduation,” the birds are forced out to seek their own territories.

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