By Sally Siko

Made a quick trip to Cape Fear Shiners Park in Lillington NC last week to see what was flying around the area.
Happily I managed to spot this male Belted Kingfisher perched on a snag in the middle of the pond.
Although the bird was pretty far away from my vantage point along the trail, I still had to sneak up to try and get a photo.
(The first image is cropped about 70% of the original pic. The second photo shows about how close I got)
These birds have an uncanny ability to sense when I’m taking their photo and usually fly off with a rattling call of amusement only to land again just outside the limits of my focal range lol!
With these photos, I got lucky.
Well kinda.
At least I came away with something haha!

A year round resident of North Carolina, Belted Kingfishers are also a familiar sight to many in the Western Hemisphere. Their breeding range stretches from Alaska, Canada and all the way down to into Florida. When winter arrives, Kingfishers in the far northern areas will migrate to the southern United States and northern South America.

They are super entertaining to watch hunt for fish.
Hovering above the water, their dark brown eyes are able to see colors and shapes distinctly through the glare of sunlight sparkling on the waves and are even capable of seeing in binocular vision.
Once they zero in on a fish, they tuck their wings tightly to their sides and dive straight down into the water like a feathered missile to stab their prey.
Once the fish is secured in their bill, they’ll fly off to finish the job. Because their fish are often large and wriggling (and thus difficult to eat), Kingfishers kill their prey by beating them on the ground (or their perch) to shatter the bones.
Then, they work the fish into their mouths, head first, so that they won’t get cut up by the bones or scales as they swallow it whole.
Crazy!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on the full frame beast of an SLR, the mighty @canonusa
#5Ds