This female Belted Kingfisher has been a welcome angler in Great Cove this summer and early fall, even though, as with all her kind, she always has a bad hair day and curses profoundly at any human whom she sees.
She’s a daredevil fisherman, hovering like a helicopter over a school of small fish and then power diving headfirst into and under the water to catch one of them with her beak. (Ospreys are not so reckless – they go in talons-first and use those weapons to grab their prey.)
Here’s a male using a gangway to a pier as his perch:
Since many of Maine’s coves and other semi-protected sea waters have not been freezing fully lately, Kingfishers are staying longer and some reportedly have been over-wintering. The sloped banks of the Cove contain some good nesting areas for Kingfishers, which lodge and give birth in earthen tunnels. By the way, the origin of this bird’s name is unclear, but most researchers think that it stems from “king’s fishers.”
(Brooklin, Maine)