Saturday, November 16, 2013

Female Belted Kingfisher

Female Belted Kingfisher Megaceryle alcyon
Still Present in Waterloo
16 November 2016

    Every year a few Belted Kingfishers spend the winter here instead of migrating to more hospitable conditions farther south. In the dead of winter I have never seen anything but males, and I assume that there is a trade off between migrating, and staying to hold a territory to attract a returning female in the spring.
    While it is certainly not winter yet, the cold months are almost upon us and most kingfishers have already moved out of this area. I was, therefore, a little surprised to locate this female this morning at Laurel Creek Conservation Area. Perhaps she will not be here much longer.
    The picture was take at some distance from the bird and is not presented here for its quality; rather it memorializes the sighting and provides a record for posterity.


David M. Gascoigne,
David M. Gascoigne,

I'm a life long birder. My interests are birds, nature, reading, books, outdoors, travel, food and wine.

1 comment:

  1. You have kingfishers very different than we do here in the Netherlands. Yours are bigger and this female kingfisher is really wonderful to see. I am very happy that I can see this as :-)

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