Yellow-headed Blackbirds

When the Yellow-headed Blackbirds flew into Sweetwater Wetlands, my latest nemesis bird issues were over. Every birder has a nemesis bird... a bird that maddeningly avoids you. Before this it was the Belted Kingfishers or any member of the kingfishers family who'd fly away one step before I stopped.

Dozens of Yellow-headed Blackbirds swirled into the cattail lagoons today.

Maybe being on-site when they arrived was the secret to capturing these elusive birds.

It's their nature to sleep in the safety of the reeds, but you might see them in large numbers in agricultural fields.

I watched them group-up, disband and regroup again and again for reasons unknown.

Having eluded me for years, I was unaware of their white wing patches that are so obvious now in flight.

They eventually left for the day and that was okay with me. So now they'll have to perturb a different birder.
(Click any picture to enlarge)
Allan

Credits: 
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
The Sibley's Guide to Birds

Belted Kingfisher

A Belted Kingfisher cuts away sharply when she notices me.  She's was an exciting, yet, fleeting sight patrolling the Milwaukee River on a sunny October day.

She sits alone twenty feet above the water. I suspect, she and her mate have raised their young for this year and split, but I don't know their private story.

Belted Kingfishers are monogamous, but form new partnerships annually.

Next year she will find a new mate.

Belted Kingfishers are not rare, only uncommon. That's why it takes some searching to find kingfishers. They like their privacy and rarely let you near.

She is patient and particular. Whatever she catches must be 'bite-sized' in order to rise waterlogged from the river.

(Click any picture to enlarge.)

A male Belted Kingfisher skims the surface for a seafood opportunity. Kingfishers sometimes hover in place before plunging head first into the water... eyes closed.

Female Belted Kingfishers are more colorful then their male counterparts. Females wear an additional 'belt' of chestnut coloring under their wings.

Kingfishers require open rivers and streams to live up to their namesake, so they will leave Wisconsin soon.

Cooling days and fall colors prompt them to head downstream to warmer weather.

Allan

Credits: 
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds
The Sibley's Guide to Birds

Belted Kingfisher

With the entire North American continent to call home, you might think a Belted Kingfisher would be a little easier to find.

Not so.

If every birder has a nemesis bird in their life, this would be mine.

I could call it bad luck, bad timing or bad karma...it's all the same in the end...a beautiful bird that flies away.

The time spent chasing a Belted Kingfisher is never wasted, though, because kingfishers live in beautiful places...always near water.  They live on fish, as their name implies, and other aquatic life.

Surprisingly or at least noteworthy, the female Belted Kingfisher is more colorful than the male. She sports an additional rufous band under her wings and across her breast that the male does not.

The male, to be sure, is no ugly partner in this relationship though.

He's stud-muffin beautiful perched across the river.

Oddly beautiful might be the apt description to place on these birds.

Almost prehistoric in appearance they make you thankful Belted Kingfishers are not seven feet tall and weigh a hundred pounds.

Allan

Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds