Belted Kingfisher
Megaceryle alcyon
Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Kingfishers
Call and song
Recording 1 · call
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Belted Kingfisher
Stocky and large-headed with a shaggy crest. Bill is long, straight, thick, and pointed. Powder blue above with white underparts and blue breast band. Females have additional rusty band across belly. Almost always solitary, perched along edges of streams, lakes, and estuaries. Flies along rivers and shorelines giving loud rattling calls. Hunts for fish by plunging headfirst into the water, either directly from a perch or hovering.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 52 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Canada
- Caribbean Netherlands
- Cayman Islands
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- France
- French Guiana
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Jamaica
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Montserrat
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Barthélemy
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin (French part)
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Sint Maarten
- Spain
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Venezuela
- Virgin Islands (British)
- Virgin Islands (U.S.)
