Whimsical-Looking Green Kingfishers

Walking on the path leading to the “Cemetery Pond Trail” about a ten minute walk from where I live in Churintzio located in the central highlands of Michoacan, Mexico, I was with eager anticipation day dreaming about seeing this marvelously whimsically-looking bird that makes an appearance in our area every late September. Then, taking one step too many before seeing the object of my (in)attention, thus blowing a fantastic photo opportunity, I saw him suddenly take off from a post on the water’s edge and fly to his favorite perch, a power line about 20 feet from the pond’s surface. You see, with unpredictable predictability I had spotted for the first time on the same day as the previous year, September 29th, a male green kingfisher, a species of bird not known to be migratory but, nonetheless, is a yearly temporary visitor here. For the next five or six months, I will, virtually daily, have the pleasure of observing him and perhaps one other green kingfisher in my birding treks that typically begin at the “Cemetery Pond Trail” and terminate about two miles down the road at his other often frequented destination, Double Garbage Lake.” Who would have thought that non-exotic Churintzio would be blessed with such an "exotic" bird!

With a huge heron-like bill, a diminutive and stocky body, and bright colors, green kingfishers are indeed unmistakable upon seeing them (although, somehow as a quite novice birder, the first time that I saw one, I temporarily misidentified it as being a pygmy kingfisher!). At approximately 7.5” and weighing slightly under one ounce, they are among the smallest of the kingfishers. Of all of the four species that occur in Mexico, only the pygmy kingfisher is smaller at about 5.3” while the belted kingfisher at 12.5” and the ringed kingfisher at 15.5” are significantly larger.

Befitting their name, they have glossy dark green upperparts with their wings and short tail being marked with white spots, a wide white collar around the neck, and a small yet distinctive (especially in quite often extremely windy Churintzio) green crest. Sexually dimorphic, meaning that there are obvious visual differences between the sexes, the males have white underparts with a chestnut-colored breast while the females underparts are buff white and are highlighted with two green chest bands. That proportionately-speaking huge bill is black, triangulated, and straight and their legs and feet are grey.

In the U.S. they only occur in southern Texas and southeastern Arizona while in Mexico, except for extreme northern parts of the country, they occur throughout the country. Their range continues down through all of Central America into South America as far as northern Chile and central Argentina. In all of the above range, they are absent from mountainous areas.

Also befitting their name, these kingfishers diet consists primarily of small freshwater fish along with aquatic insects and amphibians; if for some reason they are not by water, they may eat grasshoppers and lizards. Not surprisingly then, they are most frequently found by areas that have preferably isolated fresh water sources such as ponds, rivers, lakes, streams, mangroves, marshes, backwaters, creeks, and pools. Not being in an an isolated area as it is by the well-travelled road leading to the municipal garbage dump, "Cemetery Pond" would be an exception while the isolated "Double Garbage Lake" conforms more to their habitat preferences.

One prerequisite for any of the habitats that they inhabit is that there be plenty of overhanging brush or posts or wires for hunting purposes. Undoubtedly, one of my greatest thrills in all of my extensive bird watching endeavors, is watching a green kingfisher dive for fish. What I have observed, particularly at “Cemetery Pond,” is quite representative of their behavior. Patiently and normally quietly the kingfisher perched on one of the aforementioned wires will wait until he spots some fish in the water below. Then, suddenly, without hovering as do other species of kingfishers, he will dive directly into the water for its prey, but not too deep as weighing only 27 grams it cannot penetrate too far into the water’s surface. Just as suddenly, he will fly back to the same wire and with or without its meal, will cutely shake off any excess water from its body; one time I was fortunate enough to see a male do that three times in succession from the same perch.

From the end of September when it first makes its appearance to the time in the early spring when it departs, as soon as I get to the road by the pond, I look up at the wires to see if it is there. If I don’t see it on the wire, I look at some posts either by the water’s edge or some posts in the middle of the pond as habitually it returns to the same perches. More often than not, I am successful in spotting that solitary bird; only twice have I ever seen two green kingfishers, a male and a female, at the same spot, as they are relatively solitary and monogamous birds. Consequently, I have never seen a “clique” or “concentration” of green kingfishers as groups of them are called.

If I am unable to spot it visually, often I can hear it while it’s flying out of sight. In-flight they typically vocalize. Very distinctive, the sounds that they make in the air are hard, dry clicking notes that turn into a short, pebbly, rattling call. In fact, upon hearing that, I either excitedly say to my wife, Maria, or to myself, “here comes the green clicking rattler.“ I do not ever remember hearing one vocalize while perched but if so, the sound is said to be either a short “tic” or a “tic-tic.”

Although I adore, over and over again, seeing that whimsical-looking green clicking rattler in Churintzio, my most memorable sighting occurred one January in that “birders paradise,” San Blas, Nayarit. There, just off the famous Sewer Pond Trail, in a buggy, dark, seemingly mystical primeval setting by a murky pond surrounded by a ring of eerily overhanging branches and with numerous fallen branches and tree trunks just as eerily protruding from the water, I viewed a male green kingfisher repeatedly flying directly and low as it was clickingly and rattingly picking off numerous insects. For me, that was a natural birdy figuratively-speaking “high wire act" without the wires that I will appreciatively and awe-inspiringly remember forever!