Belted Kingfisher Visits
The Belted Kingfisher is a stocky, large-headed bird that is a year-round resident around the Chesapeake Bay area. On occasion I’ll see one perched on a phone line alongside the road and marsh. You are lucky if you can stop the car and quickly snap a quality photo, they are so flighty!
So you can imagine why I think it is a real treat when a Belted Kingfisher visits our Osprey nest platform during the fall/winter months. They aren’t one to stay long, just a stop, do a little fishing, then move on. But they do seem to like the perch and come often. You just have to have a sharp eye to catch a sighting of these tiny birds a few hundred feet out on the platform.
Here’s a series from one recent morning, when I finally got lucky in capturing one doing a little fishing.
With the everlasting warm temps we have been experiencing this season, we’ve had a lot of fog around the water. Here’s another photo taken around the same time on another morning of heavy fog. The Belted Kingfisher only sat for a minute and was gone. I don’t think he could see down in the water to sight any fish. It was time to move on to find breakfast elsewhere!
With my distance, the photos did not do justice for such a pretty bird. To show what he looks like, the next two are my favorite captures of the Belted Kingfisher, taken at Chincoteague NWR, Virginia, a few years back.
See? I told you he was a pretty bird! 🙂
I was contacted by Carol Bucklin, a local professional Maryland painter, requesting to paint the Belted Kingfisher from my last photo above. I, of course, said yes! Please go to Carol’s link to see her oil painting, which I am proud to add has sold! You won’t be disappointed.
http://carolbucklin.fineartstudioonline.com/works/1237398/kingfisher
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend!
Photos by Donna 
Boy, he is a beauty, Donna! He’d be a challenge to capture in any medium!
Working on the mallards now. Thanks for those great shots!!
I was contacted by a local Maryland painter requesting to paint him from the last photo in this post that she saw in the original post. You have got to go see it, here’s the link. And he sold, which makes me proud! http://carolbucklin.fineartstudioonline.com/works/1237398/kingfisher
I should go post that on my blog, I think I will! 🙂
You really should!!! Wow! That is an incredible painting!!!
Done! Thank you for inspiring me to do it, Laura! 🙂
You’re quite welcome! Thank you for giving me a goal to shoot for! (Wow!) Oh and needless to say – thanks for the beautiful photos!!
Kingfishers are fast.. and area tough subject to photograph. You have succeeded admirably! In addition to the great “portrait” shots… I especially like the shots of him (her?) emerging from the water with his “fresh catch of the day”! 🙂
Thanks, Steve! Always tough to be ready for their action too, I wish I could have done better with the quality, but hey, I’m still tickled! 🙂
Great bird, and well captured! I’ve only seen them a couple times…enough to know you’ve got to be quick to get such a good image. Happy new year!
Thanks, Ken! Happy New Year to you too! Hope and prayers all is well with you.
What a great photo series Donna! Nice work! 🙂
Thanks so much, HJ! 🙂
I always tell myself that any photo of a kingfisher is a good one, they are about the most wary bird that there is. You did an excellent job coming up with so many really good photos of them!
For as many times I’ve stopped the car (or hollered to my husband to stop, lol) to try to snap a photo of one on a phone line, AND he’s gone before you can, I’ll take these! 🙂
Very pretty bird! And your capture of the fishing sequence was very enjoyable!
Thank you, Helen! All summer long I work on trying to photograph the sequence of the Osprey fishing, I love the challenge of getting the series BUT being spot on & in focus, real tough, lol. They don’t give us notice to be ready and it happens so fast! 😉
I have missed the Osprey dive series countless times. But will continue to try as well 😳
I love these guys, but see them so rarely. And you’re absolutely right, they don’t sit still for very long. Great series of photos. You were lucky indeed to get so many, especially fishing.
I’ve missed him fishing so many times, because of his quickness. I purposely stood there this time and kept telling him I was ready, and then he went. I was thrilled and hoped I at least got a couple shots in focus. Yes, it is luck for sure! 🙂 AND I love the challenge!
Loved the photos in flight with the fish! Such beautiful birds. I have one in the pond down the road that seems to play hide and seek with me. He hides when I have my camera and comes out when I don’t!
He’s really beautiful, Donna. Carol’s bird paintings are gorgeous.
Before the kingfisher, Carol had taken another landscape photo of mine from Blackwater Nat’l Wildlife Refuge (Cambridge, MD) and painted it as well. She does paint gorgeous. Wish I could!!! 🙂
Such talent!
Priceless, Donna! Absolutely beautiful. I adore these birds and your action shots are just amazing. The close shots of the female are gorgeous too. She looks content. 🙂
She does! The only time I’ve had a kingfisher stay still long enough to get camera ready! Don’t we love those moments! 🙂
What a wonderful series.
Thank you Maralee
He is so lovely and so adorable… I loved all these photographs. Thank you dear Donna, Love, nia
Thank you, Nia…. hugs
A lovely painting. I am not surprised that it sold quickly. A nice selection of kingfisher shots. Perversely, I think I liked the foggy one best.
I wish I could have afforded it. She commands a nice price, understandably. Re the foggy one, I was actually quite surprised he contrasted so well in the shot. Goes to show you never know…..so take the shot even if you think it won’t be a keeper! 🙂
Sound advice.
Beautiful pics Laura of the Belted Kingfisher, I will certainly be following your blog. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much! 🙂
Great actions shots. I find it real difficult to get close to this bird.
Thank you so much!
I’m impressed. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a good Kingfisher picture.
Thanks! They don’t like giving us much time to get their photo, do they? lol 🙂