Scientific Name: Ceryle alcyon
Diet: The Belted Kingfisher eats a variety of foods. The main diet of a Belted Kingfisher is fish, but they also eat aquatic invertebrates, crayfish, frogs, snails, tadpoles, and insects. Belted Kingfishers even eat small vertebrates, berries, small reptiles, and amphibians. They hover above the water, and dive when they spot a fish, or sit in a low tree, where they can watch the water for fish.
Habitat: Belted Kingfishers live in practically an wetlands including, lakes, streams, marshes, and almost anywhere else there is water.
Sound: The Belted Kingfisher’s call is a very loud, harsh rattle.
Nesting: Belted Kingfishers breed along streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands, where they can dig out a burrow in the banks of rivers, lakes, and streams to lay eggs in. 5 to 8 eggs are laid in a chamber at the end of a tunnel. The nest is not lined. Belted Kingfishers nest from April to July, and have one brood. Both of the parents incubate the eggs for 23 to 24 days.
Behavior: The Belted Kingfisher hunts over clear water. It hovers or perches above the water, and when it spots prey it dives into the water and catch it. The Belted Kingfisher then brings it to a perch and whacks it on the perch to kill it.
Description/field marks: The Belted Kingfisher is easily identified by its large bill and scruffed up looking crest. Belted Kingfishers have dark blue backs, heads, and wings. They have white undersides, and a dark blue strip across the breast. Females have a thinner strip of brown underneath the blue strip.