Belted Kingfisher - Ecology and Behaviour

Ecology and Behaviour

The Belted Kingfisher is often seen perched prominently on trees, posts, or other suitable "watchpoints" close to water before plunging in head first after its fish prey. They also eat amphibians, small crustaceans, insects, small mammals and reptiles.

This bird nests in a horizontal tunnel made in a river bank or sand bank and excavated by both parents. The female lays five to eight eggs and both adults incubate the eggs and feed the young.

The nest of the belted kingfisher is a long tunnel and often slopes uphill. One possible reason for the uphill slope is in the case of flooding the chicks will be able to survive in the air pocket formed by the elevated end of the tunnel.

Read more about this topic:  Belted Kingfisher

Famous quotes containing the words ecology and/or behaviour:

    ... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.
    Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)

    The methodological advice to interpret in a way that optimizes agreement should not be conceived as resting on a charitable assumption about human intelligence that might turn out to be false. If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behaviour of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.
    Donald Davidson (b. 1917)