Species: Megaceryle alcyon

Belted Kingfisher

Species

Birds

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Salish Sea-reliant birds

Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Coraciiformes

Family

Alcedinidae

Genus

Megaceryle

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.105467

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Martín-Pescador Norteño - martin-pêcheur d'Amérique

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Coraciiformes - Alcedinidae - Megaceryle - Boie, but is returned to earlier generic status (AOU 1957) on the basis of evidence from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA (Moyle 2006).

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

A kingfisher.

Migration

true - true - true - Northern noncoastal breeding populations are migratory. Migrants occur in Central America and the West Indies mainly from September to early April, mid-October to late April in Trinidad (Fry and Fry 1992). In fall and spring, migrants move along the shores of certain Great Lakes localities at a rate of about 12-15 individuals/hour (Fry and Fry 1992).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Eats mainly fishes (averaging about 9 cm long), and sometimes various other vertebrates and invertebrates, obtained by diving into water from hovering flight or stout perch. May also consume berries in winter. Needs clear still waters for fishing. Regularly forages up to 8 km from the nest (Fry and Fry 1992). Rarely fishes up to a kilometer offshore.

Reproduction Comments

Egg laying months: April-July in Ontario, May-June in New York, April-June in Louisiana (Fry and Fry 1992). Clutch size 5-8 (usually 6-7). Incubation 23-24 days, by both sexes. Broods average 4. Young leave nest at 30-35 days. One brood/year, though replacement clutches may be laid. Pairs nest solitarily. On Lake Hasca, Minnesota, 14 nesting pairs occupied an area of 65 sq km (see Fry and Fry 1992).

Ecology Comments

Generally occurs singly or in pairs. In New Brunswick, densities reach 10 individuals per 1600 m of farmland stream (see Fry and Fry 1992). Foraging is usually within 1.6 km of nest, up to 8 km (Cornwell 1963). Lakeside territories average 0.8 km of shoreline, up to 2.4 km; river territories average 2.4 to 4.8 km of river length (Salyer and Lagler 1946).

Length

Weight

148

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

2007-09-12

Global Status Last Changed

1996-12-02

Other Status

LC - Least concern

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDING: western and central Alaska to northern Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, central Ontario, east Ungava Bay in Quebec, Labrador, and Newfoundland, south to southern California, southern Texas, Gulf Coast, and southern Florida. NON-BREEDING: south-coastal and southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, Colorado, southern Great Lakes region, and New England south to the West Indies, Panama, and northern South America (very rare in northern Colombia, scarce in the coastal lowlands of Venezuela and Guyana). Winters sporadically almost throughout the breeding range. Casual in Hawaii. To 2500 m in the Rocky Mountains.

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.105467