Kingfishers often hover like a tern over water where a fish is visible. They dive vertically (and sometimes spiraling) into the water. After seizing fish, they rise and return to perch, where they will beat the fish on a limb, then toss it into the air and swallow it headfirst.

Kingfishers also eat tadpoles of bullfrogs, crabs, crawfish, mussels, lizards, toads, newts, small snakes, turtles, mice, young birds, insects, and even berries, but they mainly eat small fishes.

Belted Kingfisher in Flight

Nest:

Horizontal or slightly upslanting burrow dug by the Kingfisher pair in sand, clay, or gravel bank of creek, river, lake, pond, gravel or sand pit,railroad cut; the nest may be far from water. The burrow is 3 - 4 " diameter, unlined, usually 3 - 7 feet long.

May require 3 days to 3 weeks to dig (depending on type of soil); nest chamber at the end of the burrow is about 6 x 10 inches and is often lined with clean, white fish bones and scales.

Eggs:

Usually 6 - 7 and white. Incubation is 23 - 24 days.