Belted Kingfisher

Ceryle alcyon
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Fairly rare visitor to Lagunita, breeding more regularly along streams nearby (e.g., San Francisquito Creek).
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
MF
I: 23-24 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
CAVITY
MF
6-7
(5-8)
MONOG?
F: 23+? DAYS
MF?
BREEDING: Usu along watercourses, both freshwater and marine. 1 brood.
DISPLAYS: Prolonged rapid succession of mewing calls.
NEST: Horizontal (or slightly upward-sloping) burrow in vertical bank near water; prefer soil with high sand, low clay composition. Male and female alternately dig and remove detritus. Usu 3'-6', may reach 15' in length. Nest chamber holds grass or leaf saucer. Occ in tree cavity.
EGGS: White. 1.4" (34 mm).
DIET: Occ also takes aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, insects, young birds, mice; rarely berries. Also oysters and squid on coast. Young fed regurgitant. Ejects pellets. Dives from perch or hovers and dives from above.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to n S.A.
NOTES: Nestlings cling together and can maintain body heat in a group at 6 days, whereas lone nestling requires 16 days. Mates can recognize each other by distinctive calls given when approaching nest. After fledging, parents teach fishing to perched young by dropping dead meals into water for retrieval; at 10 days postfledging, young catch live food and are forced from parental territory. Fish fills throat while rapid digestion allows it to inch down gullet. Solitary when not breeding, defends individual feeding territories, size inversely correlated with food abundance.
ESSAYS: Birds and the Law; Swimming; Vocal Functions; Pellets; Temperature Regulation; Territoriality; Parental Care.
REFERENCES: Brooks and Davis, 1987; Davis, 1982, 1986.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).