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Belted Kingfisher | Megaceryle alcyon
Bandijsvogel | Martín gigante norteamericano
The Belted Kingfisher is the kingfisher seen across most of the Caribbean: a winter visitor from North America that winters from the Bahamas to Trinidad and Tobago. It draws attention with its rattling call and its habit of hovering over water before diving. Over most of the region it is the only kingfisher.
Voice
A loud, dry, rattling krrrrrrr, mainly in flight and when flushed.
Recording: Rory Nefdt — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
28–35 cm, with a large, ragged-crested head and a long, heavy, black bill. Head, back and wings are blue-grey, with a white spot in front of the eye and a broad white collar. A blue-grey band crosses the breast; the belly is white. The female has a second, rufous band below it that extends along the flanks; the male lacks this. Juveniles show a rusty wash in the breast band. In flight there is a white patch at the base of the primaries.
Confusion species
Ringed Kingfisher Megaceryle torquata is larger and has an entirely rufous belly (male) or a rufous belly below a blue-grey breast band (female); it lacks the white lower belly of Belted. The green kingfishers Chloroceryle are green, not blue-grey, above and smaller.
Habitat
Almost any clear, calm water with fish and perches: coastal lagoons, mangroves, shallow bays and harbours, lakes, reservoirs, rivers and fish ponds. It perches on posts, wires, branches and rocks over water, or hovers above it, and dives for small fish; it also takes crabs and other aquatic animals.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Winter visitor to the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Lesser Antilles, the ABC Islands, San Andrés and Trinidad and Tobago; commonest in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, scarcer to the south. It does not breed in the region. Breeds in North America from Alaska and Canada to the southern United States, wintering south to Central America and northern South America.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In winter at almost any lagoon, mangrove shore or harbour; the rattling call often gives the bird away before it is seen. With a bird in the south of the region the belly colour is worth checking to rule out Ringed Kingfisher.
Conservation status
Globally not threatened. A common winter visitor in the north of the region, scarcer in the Lesser Antilles and on Trinidad.
Scientific name
Megaceryle alcyon | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Alcedo Alcyon; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Megaceryle was introduced in 1848 by Kaup. Megaceryle combines Greek megas 'great' with the genus name Ceryle, setting the large kingfishers apart from the smaller ones. alcyon is Greek halkuon, the kingfisher of the myth of Alcyone, who was turned into the bird. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Carolina.