Belted Kingfishers have powdery blue-gray plumage, dark eyes, tiny legs and feet, large heads with shaggy crests and long, sharp bills.
This morning, I'm sharing a male Belted Kingfisher photo that I took one year ago today. I was photographing ducks at one of my local ponds when he flew in.
Little did I know that on my last trip up into the Wasatch Mountains, that I would witness a battle between a Belted Kingfisher and my first-of-season Merlin.
I have been missing springtime in the mountains. There is so much snow up there from this past winter that most of the mountain roads I use are still closed.
I found a perched female Belted Kingfisher while I was at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago. This was after the clouds came back in creating low light conditions.
The 2023 ABA Bird of the Year was revealed yesterday evening. The bird of the year is the Queenfisher, also known as the female Belted Kingfisher.
I took my first of year male Belted Kingfisher portrait photos three days ago high in the Wasatch Mountains when this bird flew in close to me.
I've been following an amazing sighting of a male Belted Kingfisher in Lancashire, UK for about a week now, it is only the 4th such sighting for that country.
If I hadn't been sitting exactly where I was at the time I was photographing the Belted Kingfisher I would have missed out on seeing this rare Northern Waterthrush.
What I missed seeing was that the immature Belted Kingfisher had spider webs stuck to its face in a long series of photos that I took of it next to a creek in the Wasatch Mountains.
Three days ago I was delighted to have both an immature and an adult male Belted Kingfisher in my viewfinder as I sat next to a creek in the mountains.
Today I am sharing four male Belted Kingfisher photos that I have taken this spring in the Wasatch Mountains starting with one that I took yesterday morning.
Three days ago I watched as a male Belted Kingfisher caught a small fish, landed on a branch and swallowed his catch of the day high in the Wasatch Mountains.
Saturday morning I was delighted when a male Belted Kingfisher flew in and perched in front of pussy willow catkins high in the Wasatch Mountains.
I photographed this female Belted Kingfisher calling from a branch in March of 2017 close to the Jordan River not far from where I live.
I was totally unaware on that April morning that I would be photographing a Belted Kingfisher family for several months.
I was looking through images I had taken this summer and decided to share a close up of a male Belted Kingfisher with prey that I photographed in the Wasatch Mountains this summer.
The male Belted Kingfisher had been perched and without warning dove into the water, caught a fish, returned to his perch, and ate it all within close proximity to where I sat in my Jeep.
It is always a thrill when birds fly in close to me and that is what happened yesterday with a handsome male Belted Kingfisher.
I spent yesterday morning high up in the Wasatch Mountains where part of the time I focused on photographing the Belted Kingfishers that I found in two counties.
Yesterday there was a bit of light in the morning so I went to see if there were any birds that could be photographed at my local ponds and I was delighted when I heard the rattling call of a Belted Kingfisher.
Back in early June I had the opportunity to photograph a male Belted Kingfisher up close high in the Wasatch Mountains but due to circumstances beyond my control I missed those shots.
The nicest surprise of the morning was when a female Belted Kingfisher perched on a branch close to a creek and the road.
I never did get any decent shots of the Belted Kingfisher yesterday but I am glad to know he is back at the pond and that I should have more opportunities with him... if nothing gets in the way.
Belted Kingfishers are year round residents in northern Utah but my best opportunities to photograph them at Farmington Bay WMA are during the winter.
I photographed this male Belted Kingfisher last month as it perched on a thin branch at a small pond close to the Jordan River in Salt Lake County, Utah.
I took several hundred images of a female Belted Kingfisher looking for and catching prey while it was bright and sunny yesterday afternoon.
Wow, today is the last day of the year 2016. This is my photographic year in review from Utah, Idaho and Montana!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to photograph the continuing male Belted Kingfisher with the snow-covered marsh in the background, a few times he even had prey.
I had fun photographing a male Belted Kingfisher at Farmington Bay as he caught prey and ate it on a post near a little creek.
I wasn't expecting to see a handsome male Belted Kingfisher at Farmington Bay WMA yesterday but that is exactly what happened and I was able to get some nice photos of him too.