Green Kingfisher
Chloroceryle americana
Content and photos by James Giroux
How can you not love the Green Kingfisher? The male and female are both a gorgeous emerald and white color, and the male adds a splash of rusty-red across the chest. Add a woodpecker-like bill, and you have quite the bird. As the name implies, these are “fishing birds” – perching above the water, then diving head first into the water to catch fish. The bill is much like the type of bill you would see on an egret or heron. But this bill is not just used for fishing. Both males and females use their bills to excavate nesting cavities from hard-packed soils in steep river banks. They also have specially adapted feet with two toes fused together that they use for scooping dirt out of the burrows. The burrows can be three feet long! That’s a lot of digging!
Female
There are three North American Kingfishers: Green, Belted and Ringed. The Belted Kingfisher is widespread, and can be found in every state except Hawaii. In the U.S. the Ringed Kingfisher is only found in south Texas.
Green Kingfishers are mainly known as a south Texas or southern Arizona specialty. They are the smallest of the three North American Kingfishers at just under a foot in length. They occasionally show up in Travis County, but they are rare here. The best place to find them close to Austin is at Pedernales Falls State Park, although they are rare to uncommon there.
Male
In addition to hunting fish, the Green Kingfisher also dines on shrimp, dragonfly nymphs, waterbugs, and ants.
Although the birds usually blend in with the green vegetation they often perch in, they are often loud and obnoxious sounding when they fly. Especially when there is a pesky birdwatcher staring at them. Listen for their raucous kli-kli-kli-kli-kli as they fly up and down their river territories.
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