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Belted Kingfisher
Ceryle alcyonBelted Kingfisher
Frank Dobson was standing in a marsh to study shorebirds, when a kingfisher stole the show. As it hovered over a shallow pool, Dobson swung his telescope around for a closer look. “With open bill and beating wings, it stared at the water. Something caught its eye and it dropped like a rock. It missed its prey and immediately resumed its hovering position. I hadn’t moved the scope and was surprised to see it in the same place when I looked through the eyepiece.” It dropped again. Missed again. And again resumed its hovering “within inches of where it had been before. Five times it hovered and five times it dove, each time returning to the same hovering location. Talk about persistence.” (Birds, 1 April 1984) Dobson’s bird came up empty. Otherwise, he might have enjoyed even more of a spectacle. “When the Kingfisher rises from the water with his catch he utters a triumphant rattle and shaking the water from his plumage seeks his favorite stand, erects his crest, tilts his tail, proceeds to stun or beat the life out of his squirming victim against the perch, and then swallows it head first,” Eaton noted. (Eaton II: 137) The almost mechanical rattle of this bird signals its approach. “Suddenly one individual of the group shouted, ‘Kingfisher’!” John Lehr wrote of a field trip to Bay Park East on 15 May 1996.“A dispute arose whether the sound we heard was the bird or one of the fishermen working the reel on his pole, but the question was settled when a blue and white missile making a raucous noise shot by us.” (GOS, July/August 1996)
Background These birds are a common sight over most of Canada and the United States during the breeding season, hovering over open water before plunge-diving for a fish or crayfish. Though they will linger in winter where open water is available, most migrate from Canada, some as far south as northern South America. Migrating birds move along rivers and along the shores of the Great Lakes. The call, a “reverberating mechanical rattle,” is given at the slightest disturbance. This species needs suitable earthen banks in which to excavate nesting burrows. Nesting sanitation is accomplished when nestlings excrete against the rear wall of the tunnel, then turn around and hammer the substrate just above the feces, simultaneously enlarging the chamber and covering up the excreta! The digging of sand and gravel pits benefits this species, which shows no clear pattern of population change. (BNA 84: 1- 3, 10-11)
Local history
Eaton (1910) listed this as a common summer resident in Monroe and Wayne counties, also occurring in Livingston. (Eaton I: county charts)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of one to two birds, with a maximum count of 5, on dates ranging from 14March to 13 November. He listed two winter records: one on 4 January 1931, and one on 26 December 1931.By the early 1950s, wintering birds were being reported much more frequently. When Leo Tanghe analyzed 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951 through 1954, he found 19 January and early February reports within a 50-mile radius of Rochester.In 1953, Tanghe listed this as a common breeding species in the Rochester area, specifically mentioned Durand and Powder Mills parks as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953)“Apparently the Belted Kingfisher did not suffer the reproductive setbacks from DDT which other fish-eating species such as the Osprey did,” Emanuel Levine notes in his profile of this species in The Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State. This may have been because the kingfisher feeds on small fish and lower forms of aquatic life “which would not have had DDT concentrations comparable to those of the larger prey fish consumed by the Osprey.” (Andrle, p. 224)
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, fairly common summer resident and a regular, uncommon winter visitant.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this an irregular uncommon to rare winter visitant and a (presumably regular) fairly common summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 13 March to 23 April, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 29 March to 7 April. Spring maxima: 27 on 30 March 1988 (Nicoletti) at Braddock Bay migrating past the hawk lookout. (KB 38:196; GOS, May 1988) 55 in two hours on 13 April 1982 (R. Dobson) at Manitou. (GOS, June 1982) 280 on 14 April 1983 (R. Dobson et al) at west spit of Braddock Bay. (GNR)
Summer/breeding status: Long, rattling call is familiar along Lake Ontario and along streams, rivers, and ponds. Nests in burrows dug into stream banks. This observer found what appeared to be likely nest burrows in an exposed slope at Turning Point Park overlooking the Genesee River. However, he never saw kingfishers actually entering or leaving them. Bob Spahn provided an invaluable tip: Look for telltale side-by-side grooves on the bottom surface of the opening, revealing where the parent drags its feet as it enters. Sure enough, the grooves were clearly visible at the entrance to one of the burrows –in addition to a small minnow lying there. Our region had one of the largest numbers of blocks with confirmed breeding during the first BBA project. However, by the second project, there was a noticeable increase in blocks without any evidence of breeding, especially from the western half of Monroe into Orleans counties. Is ongoing expansion of subdivisions and other development, and increased use of stone rip-rap to control erosion along stream banks contributing to this?
Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of departure dates from 26 September to 27 November, with a mid range, or “normal departure time” of 12 October to 2 November. Winter: Some linger into winter at open water, such as Russell Station outlet and the Genesee River. Recorded annually on the Rochester CBC since 1957, with peak tallies of 16 on 25 December 1970; 15 on 16 December 1984; 13 on 15 December 1974 and 12 on three other counts.Also, 28 on 28 February 1960 (T. Tetlow, Foster) were at Powder Mill Park. (GOS, March-July 1960)
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