BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
NANTUCKET'S KOOKABURRA?
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Perhaps you remember an old camp song that went, "Kookaburra up in the ol' gum tree, Merry-merry king of the bush is he."

Barn Owl

Back then I didn't know what a gum tree or a kookaburra was, but I knew one of them laughed and both were something to sing about.

Years later, I was lucky enough to live in Australia and actually hear a troop of 'kookies' egg each other on until the whole flock was laughing maniacally.

Their marvelous sound took me back to that childhood song.

Kookaburras are kingfishers and yes, we have one of those on our island- the Belted Kingfisher. Kingfishers all have big heads, short legs, pointed bills and stubby tails. They are frequently quite colorful and fascinating to watch. Kookaburras are the heaviest kingfisher but not the largest. The Giant Kingfisher from Africa wins that prize.

Although kookaburras fall into the kingfisher family, they seldom eat fish. Kookaburras are forest kingfishers and dine mostly on snakes and lizards. If you leave your "shrimp exposed on the barbie," you may lose it to a kookaburra.

Let's return to Nantucket and to the Belted Kingfisher.

Its scientific name, Ceryle alcyon, gives fascinating insight into this family's reputation. Both names come from the Greek- Ceryle meaning 'seabird' and Alcyon, a woman in Greek legend, who was so inconsolable after husband Ceryx drowned, the gods changed them both into kingfishers.

Alcyone was the Greek 'dove-goddess,' leader of the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters, a tight cluster of hot blue stars. The ancients believed that Alcyone calmed the waters in mid-winter so that the kingfisher could build her nest in the open sea.

Belted Kingfishers compare well in length with our 12-inch bird ruler, the Blue Jay. But remember, kingfishers are mostly head and very little tail.

Kingfisher heads appear large because they sport a shaggy crest of feathers at the rear. They are slate blue above and white below.

While male kingfishers have a single blue belt across the breast, females have a rusty brown belt below the blue one.

We frequently see Belted Kingfishers looking down into the water for lunch from a wire or perhaps on the mast of a moored boat. In flight, Roger Tory Peterson comments they look like they are continually changing gears- slow wing beats, then fast, back to slow again. Now and again, one will face the wind and hover before diving into the water to catch a fish.

With a fish in its beak, the kingfisher will fly to a more substantial perch, where it can bash its hapless prey senseless before tossing it into the air and catching it headfirst. The kingfisher will then swallow the fish without being damaged by its spine. Belted Kingfisher diet is almost 100 percent fish.

Often we hear a kingfisher before we see it. The call is described as "a loud, dry rattle," sometimes written- "rickety, crick, crick, crick"- usually given in flight.

Outside the nesting season, they are solitary birds, yet it is not uncommon to see two kingfishers in pursuit of one another, especially when there is a conflict over a favorite fishing spot.

On Nantucket, the Belted Kingfishers nest in burrows, which they excavate

Along the bluffs from Shimmo to Quaise and on the south side of Coskata. They lay six or seven eggs in a room at the back of the tunnel, which can be as long as 12 feet. Studies have found that when the chick's hatch, they cling together for the first few weeks in a tight group. When they finally emerge from the burrow, they seem quite naive and awkward after living the first part of their lives in the dark.

The parents teach their young to fish by teasing them with a stunned fish, then dropping it into the water. Eventually the youngsters learn how to handle the refractive effect of the image in the water and can grab their lunch. Once they learn to catch a live fish, the parenting cycle is over for the year.

Although Belted Kingfishers can be found here 12 months a year, you are most likely to encounter them from April until the end of October. Since kingfishers depend on diving into the water for fish, Nantucket's winters are too severe at times for them.

We've had kingfishers on three-quarters of our Christmas Bird counts with a high of six.

If you are lucky enough to see a shaggy headed bird 'rattling' through the sky looking to catch a fish, think about how our Belted Kingfisher is just one of over 90 different kingfishers in the world and that

one family member laughs in a song. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. The Maria Mitchell Association sponsors bird walks on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:30 a.m. and Saturday mornings starting at 8 a.m., from the corner of Vestal and Milk Streets. There is a fee for non-members. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Find more about Birding Nantucket on the web at http://kblackshaw. com/BN/BN.htm.