Free Range Photography

Belted Kingfishers are fairly common along the South Fork of the Eel, For as loud and sassy as they seem to be they are also remarkably skittish. In other words, if they see you before you see them they will disappear in a hurry, often sounding a mocking rattle as they zoom off.

But once a year, in the late summer or early fall, they lose their aversion to human presence for a short time as they become absorbed in some kind of ritual that sends 2 or 3 of them into a frenzied game of chase that at times looks hostile and territorial and in other moments looks like some kind of game, during which pauses take place while the birds assess the score. The birds are so absorbed in their derby that they make many passes right in front of me even as I made obvious movements adjusting my position to try to keep them in focus.

Just about every year I see some version of this behavior, as I have documented before in this previous post:

This year’s episode lasted for almost two hours, and included three Kingfishers for a short while with all three of them chasing after each other high in some trees on a hillside far above the river. It was hard to detect who was who from that distance on an overcast morning but before long the game was down to just two participants.

What followed was a repeated pattern of an adult male chasing an adult female until she moved off of her perch, zooming away but not so far as to evade further attention from the male. Over and over this happened, a non-stop screeching rattle from both birds accompanying the event.

Breeding season being over, and Kingfishers not taking lifelong mates, it’s hard to imagine this was some kind of pair bonding, but neither was it a territorial battle because of the intermissions during which the two would sit perched in close proximity quietly. There was no competition for prey; in fact neither bird showed any interest in hunting at all, although on several occasions, one would hit the water as if in pursuit of a fish, but actually appearing to make some kind of emphatic statement.

This is a long video, but is a condensation of nearly three times as much footage from the morning. You’ll get an idea of what the action was like.

Belted Kingfishers are not social birds. They seldom interact except during breeding season and while raising young. They defend their domain against other Kingfishers, and the young, once capable of catching their own food, are left to find their own quarter mile or so of riverfront territory. In the past, I have seen youngsters playing at this same behavior, whatever it is.

These annual antics remain a mystery to me, but I have come to anticipate them eagerly each September as a seasonal highlight. 2025’s Kingfisher Kerfuffle will always stand out as one of the best.