| Kingfishers in the
Piney Woods By Jay V. Huner |
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A raucous chattering call often alerts me to the presence of a Belted Kingfisher around our home on the shores of Cotile Lake in Rapides Parish's piney woods. These jay bird-sized, blue-backed and white-bellied birds are really handsome birds but their huge, dagger-shaped bills and cocky attitudes would make them poor pets. The word "belted" refers to a bluish-gray belt across a white breast in males and females. Females also have a rusty brown belt below the blue belt. This brownish hue extends to the sides making the females flashier than the males, an unusual situation in the bird world. Belted Kingfishers have huge heads with shaggy crests accented by their large bills. Tails are very short. They cannot be mistaken for any other bird in our region of the world. Ever hear about the Australian Kookaburras? If not, check them out and you'll see that they look like kingfishers because they are kingfishers! I've been fortunate to see Kookaburras up close and personal and they are just as noisy as our kingfishers. The Belted Kingfishers nest in burrows in steep, often vertical banks high enough aboard the water to take into account most floods that might destroy their nests. The soil is generally sandy and the mated pair dig a horizontal burrow 3-6 feet into the bank where the female lays her eggs. Both birds share incubation duties. Kingfishers feed primarily on fish but will take aquatic insects, crawfish and small reptiles, amphibians, and mammals from time to time. They perch on snags and utility wires above clear water or, sometimes, hover above the water before diving to catch prey. The birds will often make their signature chatter call after a successful catch. Initially, the nestling kingfishers are fed re-gurgitated, partially digested prey. Later, they are fed whole prey that they must then tear apart. Parents feed their fledglings for several weeks after they leave the nest but the young birds soon learn to catch their own food. Belted Kingfishers nest throughout our piney woods landscape. However, members of the clan nest all across North America well into Canada and Alaska. These birds move southward with fall and winter cold weather as they must have open water to find and catch food. That is why the numbers of kingfishers grow substantially in early fall and remain high into early spring. Kingfishers will hunt wherever they can find suitable prey. It is not surprising to find them along streams, rivers, bayous, lakes, ponds and reservoirs. However, they will also stake out small, shallow road-side ditches and remain as long as "fishing is good". They typically fish from utility wires above ditches. Kingfishers are not very gregarious. A dominant bird will set up a good feeding territory in fall-winter-spring and spend a good deal of time chasing away other kingfishers. It is common, during the cool months in the piney woods, to hear excited kingfisher chatter and then see one kingfisher chasing another away. Jay V. Huner |
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