BELTED KINGFISHER
PR

The kingfisher is a picturesque but hardly a handsome or pretty bird. Its head, helmeted with a crest of gray feathers, seems out of proportion with the rest of its body. Both sexes are chunky-appearing birds, grayish blue in color with a heavy band of blue across the chest of the male and a rust-colored stripe on the female. A sharp bill, longer than the bird's head, is used to spear its prey. With its heavily oiled plumage and a suit of down underwear, the feathered fisherman is probably more comfortably attired than his human counterpart.

The eyesight of a kingfisher can be compared favorably with that of hawks and eagles. Its dives are made from fifteen to fifty feet and one can imagine the difficulty in spotting a two to three inch fish from such a distance in water that could range from murky to sunlit. The impact of the dive would seem to stun the piscatorial expert but he takes it in stride. Water temperatures also fail to deter the flying Isaac Walton who hits the icy waters of King Winter with the same nonchalance that he fishes in the balmy waters of summer.

The kingfisher is one of the few birds that nests in the ground. The male and female join in the task of drilling a tunnel nearly six feet long and six inches in diameter where the nest is constructed and the family raised.

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