Monday, September 12, 2011

Belted Kingfisher

Here is a better shot of the white spots in front of the eyes I mentioned in yesterday's post.  Kingfishers are one of the rare species where the female is more colorful than the male.  Males lack the orange belt of the female.  There are actually some kingfishers that do not catch fish, which seems like an oxymoron.  Belted kingfishers, like this female, sight-feed and so need clear water to see their prey.  They will survey the water from a high branch overlooking the water and plunge-dive to capture their prey.  If the water is muddied by heavy rain like we had this past week, they may switch to other foods such as amphibians and insects.

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