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Size: 13 inches

Adult: There's an old saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Perhaps that same committee worked on the Belted Kingfisher, for it is a caricature cobbled together from spare parts--heavy outsized bill, spiky crest, abbreviated tail, stubby legs and tiny feet. Both sexes have white collars and wide slate-blue breastbands but the female with her added chestnut breastband is more colorful than her slate-blue, white-bellied mate. The kingfisher is a "flying rattle" that defends feeding territory even when not nesting, its loud, noisy clatter ringing out over the water.

Breeding Plumage: No dramatic change.

Immature: Similar to adult.

Habitat: Where the fish are! The kingfisher perches in solitary splendor on a branch or wire overlooking open water--rivers, bays, coastal and fresh-water marshes or ponds. If you are lucky, you may see it hover, then plunge headlong into the water in pursuit of a fish.

A Florida resident. Nests in vertical banks, using the bill to excavate tunnels and a nesting chamber. Where there are no banks a tree cavity may be used for raising a brood. The next can be some distance from the fishing grounds.

Text by Mary Jean Rogers, West Volusia Audubon.

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