a pair of these trogons in the Santa Rita Mountains in southern
Arizona in 1918, of which he writes: “While wrapping two birds
which I had shot at 6,000 feet in a canyon, on August 4, I looked
up and saw a pair of these birds watching me from live oak
branches at perhaps a hundred yards. I had an unobstructed view of
their bright underparts and characteristic form and flight, and
identification was sure. They were very ‘wise,’ and as I carefully
approached, they as slowly receded, flying from oak to oak until
they separated and I lost them in the denser growth. The trees were
almost entirely live oaks here with a very occasional pine.”
Herbert W. Brandt has sent me the following notes on the status
of this beautiful bird on the western slopes of the Huachuca
Mountains, Ariz.: “The turkeylike call of this rare, semitropical
visitor is a common bird note in Sunnyside Canyon and in the lower
reaches of Bear Canyon. There are at least three pairs of birds
in each of these valleys; and in the morning they noisily call
back and forth to one another. These valley floors are usually
densely wooded and would make this bird difficult to study were
it not for its inquisitive nature, for it is usually easily lured
by the ‘squeech.’ One lavishly garbed male and his more modest
mate repeatedly allowed me to walk up to within about 20 feet
of them before they would fly a short distance and then allow
me to approach them again. Each time they both called their
hen-turkey-like notes, _kum-kum-kum_, ever answering my squeeches
of a like count and inflection. That this bird breeds in the
vicinity there is little doubt, but we did not spend time seeking
its home, as Arizona has wisely put it on the permanently protected
list, and in consequence this mountain-loving species is becoming
common again in its densely tangled retreats.”
A. J. van Rossem (1936) adds the following news:
Regardless of its status in former years, this trogon may
now be counted a fairly common summer visitant in the Santa
Ritas. Possibly it has always been more numerous than was
supposed, for one of the rangers, who has been stationed
for many years in the Santa Ritas, knew the bird well and
told me of having seen as many as five or six feeding
together at a single patch of manzanita. At any rate there
were several pairs in Madera Cañon in the summers of 1931
and 1932. * * *
On June 27 [1931], Mr. Gorsuch and I saw or heard eight
birds between the forks of the cañon at 6000 feet, and
Littleshot Cabin at 7000. On that date a fully adult
male was collected by Mr. Gorsuch for the museum at the
University of Arizona. On June 28, a very young trogon,
about two-thirds grown and evidently just out of the nest,
was shot, quite unintentionally, in a patch of oaks at 6000
feet.
At least two pairs were noted on May 30, 1931; “the association
in which they were noted was the oak-sycamore growth near the
juncture of Upper Sonoran and Transition. Two males (both of which
presumably had mates) were heard in the left (north) fork--one at
7000, the other at 8000 feet altitude. These altitudes are in the
pine-oak association in the Transition Zone.”
Col. A. J. Grayson (Lawrence, 1874) says that, in western Mexico,
“it is to be met with only in the dark forests of the _tierra
caliente_.”
_Nesting._--Colonel Grayson says that “it breeds in the hollows
of trees like the parrots.” According to Mrs. Bailey (1928), the
nest is “reported in cavities in large trees, generally in large
deserted woodpecker holes, but also in holes in banks.” There
are ten sets of eggs of the coppery-tailed trogon in the Thayer
collection in Cambridge, all collected by, or for, Frank B.
Armstrong near Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico, between March
29 and April 27, 1908. If these dates are all correctly recorded,
these trogons must breed very plentifully in that region, or Mr.
Armstrong’s collectors must have been very industrious. There are
a number of sets in other collections from the same locality, all
taken by the same collectors. These eggs were all taken from nests
in holes in trees, apparently natural cavities; the holes were at
various heights, ranging from 12 to 40 feet above the ground; some
of the trees were in a river bottom and others in “big woods near
town.” The nests were made of various materials, such as hay,
straw, trash, moss, wool, down, feathers, vines, and thistledown.
_Eggs._--The coppery-tailed trogon lays ordinarily three or four
eggs but probably sometimes only two. These are rounded-ovate to
nearly oval in shape; and the shell is smooth but not glossy. The
color is dull white or faintly bluish white and entirely unmarked.
The measurements of 55 eggs average 28.50 by 23.18 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =30.7= by 24.6, 29 by =25=,
=26= by 22.8, and 29.5 by =22.1= millimeters.
_Plumages._--I have not seen any nestlings or very young birds.
Ridgway (1911) gives very full and accurate descriptions of all the
known plumages of both sexes of this trogon; but his accounts are
too long to be quoted in full here, so I shall mention only the
most conspicuous features of the different plumages, by which the
reader may recognize them.
In the juvenal plumage, in July, the sexes are alike, or nearly so,
and closely resemble, on the upper parts, the adult female, except
that the central pair of tail feathers have very narrow black
tips, instead of broad ones; the next three pairs of rectrices are
black, and the two lateral pairs are mostly white, barred with
black, except for a large terminal white area; the lesser, median,
and to a lesser degree the greater wing coverts are tipped with a
large spot of pale buff or buffy white, bordered with black; chin
and throat grayish brown above a quite distinct white pectoral
band; below this band the under parts are indistinctly barred, or
mottled, with grayish brown and grayish white.
This unadulterated juvenal plumage is apparently worn through the
first summer and early fall; I have seen it in its purity in birds
collected at various dates between July 23 and September 20; but,
on the other hand, some specimens show the beginning of a molt
before the end of August. During all the remainder of their first
year, young birds show more or less continuous progress toward
maturity by a gradual and irregular molt. At an early age, between
August and November, young males begin to show metallic green
feathers in the back and throat, and metallic blue feathers in
the rump and upper tail coverts; during winter and spring these
metallic colors gradually increase; and on the under parts, below
the white band, there is a gradual decrease in the brown and white
and a corresponding increase in the “geranium red” of the adult
plumage. At the same time, young females are acquiring more and
more of the “peach red” of the adult female on the posterior under
parts.
These transition plumages may be seen, in the series I have
studied, in birds collected in November, December, February, March,
April, May, June, and July, during all of which time the juvenal
wings and tail are retained. From this I infer that the annual molt
occurs in summer and fall and that young birds do not acquire
the fully adult plumage until they are at least 15 months old, or
perhaps much older.
_Food._--Some coppery-tailed trogons that E. C. Jacot collected
for me were feeding on wild grapes. Dr. A. K. Fisher wrote to
Major Bendire (1895) that “a rancher who raises fruit in Ramsay
Canyon stated that the species visited the gardens in considerable
numbers, especially during the period when cherries were ripe.”
Major Bendire (1895) says of other members of the trogon family:
“Their food consists of fruit, grasshoppers, and other insects,
and in their actions while catching the latter they are said to
resemble a Flycatcher, starting and returning from a perch like
these birds, and often sitting for hours in the same place.”
Cottam and Knappen (1939) state that a bird, collected by Dr.
Fisher in the Huachuca Mountains in June, “had fed exclusively on
the adults and larvae of lepidopterous insects.” They examined
the stomach of another bird, collected in October in Mexico, that
contained 68 percent insects and 32 percent fruits. The insect
food included one grasshopper nymph, long-horned grasshopper eggs,
three Mantidae, three stink bugs, other Heteroptera, one leaf
beetle, one very large larva of a hawk moth, larvae of undetermined
Lepidoptera, and two sawfly larvae. The vegetable food consisted of
fruits of cut-leaved cissus, fruit of red pepper, and undetermined
plant fiber.
_Behavior._--F. H. Fowler (1903) writes:
On June 9, 1892, my father and I accompanied Dr. A. K.
Fisher to Garden Canyon seven miles south of the post.
We reached the canyon and were riding up the narrow
trail bordered with pines and live oaks, when suddenly a
beautiful male trogon flew across the path just ahead of
us, and perched on a live oak bush on the other side of the
small stream which flows through the canyon. The Doctor
tried to approach it, but the noise caused by his passage
through the thick brush and over the sliding rocks on the
hill side alarmed the bird, which from the first had seemed
a trifle uneasy, and it was soon lost to view among the
trees down the canyon. Higher up among the pines, on the
same day, we heard the calls of another which sounded much
like those of a hen turkey. While we were eating lunch
on the way down, we heard still another calling from the
hillside above us, and the Doctor, who found it perched
on the lower limb of a pine after a short search, watched
its actions for a few moments and then shot at it. It sat
erect, the tail hanging straight down, and when uttering
the call threw its head back until its beak pointed nearly
straight up.
On August 14 of the same year I again found the trogon in
Garden Canyon, this time higher up however at the Picture
Rocks. A beautiful pair flew up from a fallen pine to the
lower limb of a tree, and sat there quietly watching me. I
dismounted and fired a reduced charge at the male, but the
only effect was that he flew off through the trees unhurt,
while the female flew up to a small tree on the hill, where
she sat, looking at me until I loaded my gun, when I shot
her. At the second shot the male flew up the canyon his
beautiful carmine breast gleaming in the sunlight like a
streak of flame. Both birds sat nearly erect when at rest,
with their long tails hanging nearly straight down. Their
flight was nearly like the slow flight of a magpie, until
startled, when they flew like a dove and nearly as fast.
_Voice._--Mr. Jacot says, in his letter, that the young birds were
silent but that the adults had many notes, one of which was “almost
like the chattering of our gray squirrel.” A note referred to above
was like that of a hen turkey. Dr. William Beebe (1905) says: “The
call of the trogon, uttered especially toward evening when it came
to drink, was a soft series of melodious notes, reminding one
somewhat of the content-call of a hen with chickens. Regularly at
dusk two of these birds went to roost in a dense tangle of wild
clematis.” Mr. van Rossem (1936) refers to the note of the male
trogon as a “loud, hoarse, ‘kóa-kóa-kóa’.” Evidently the bird has a
variety of notes.
_Field marks._--The shape and posture, referred to above, as well
as its brilliant colors, would mark this beautiful bird definitely
as a trogon. The only other trogon likely to be met with anywhere
within the range of this species is the Mexican trogon, found on
the highlands of Mexico. The two species can be recognized in life
by the color patterns of the outer tail feathers; in _ambiguus_
these feathers are largely white, barred or vermiculated with
black; in _mexicanus_ they are largely black, broadly tipped with
white.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Southern Arizona, south to central Mexico; accidental in
the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
The range of the coppery-tailed trogon extends =north= casually to
Arizona (possibly Santa Catalina Mountains, Huachuca Mountains, and
possibly Tombstone); northern Chihuahua (San Luis Mountains and
the Sierra de la Campana); Nuevo Leon (Monterey and Montemorelos);
and central Tamaulipas (Ciudad Victoria and Soto la Marina).
=East= to Tamaulipas (Soto la Marina, Xicotencatl, Altamira, and
Tampico); central Veracruz (Orizaba); and central Oaxaca (Talca and
Juchatengo). =South= to Oaxaca (Juchatengo); Oaxaca (Omilteme and
Amula); Michoacan (Tancitaro); and Jalisco (Zapotlan). =West= to
Jalisco (Zapotlan, Ameca, and San Marcos); Nayarit (Mazatlan, Tres
Marias Islands, and Mexcatitlan); Sinaloa (Escuinapa, El Limon,
Angostura, and San Javier); eastern Sonora (Alamos, Chinobampo,
and Guiracoba); and southeastern Arizona (Huachuca Mountains and
possibly the Santa Catalina Mountains).
_Casual records._--Although this bird can only be considered as
rare anywhere in the United States, it appears to be fairly regular
in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz. During the summer of 1877 a trogon
was killed near Ringgold Barracks and another at Las Cuevas, Tex.
Although not preserved they were fully described, by the persons
who shot them, to Dr. James C. Merrill, and were undoubtedly this
species.
_Egg dates._--Mexico: 23 records, March 29 to June 30; 12 records,
April 15 to May 13, indicating the height of the season.
Order CORACIIFORMES
Family ALCEDINIDAE: Kingfishers
MEGACERYLE ALCYON ALCYON (Linnaeus)
EASTERN BELTED KINGFISHER
PLATES 12–14
HABITS
Our North American representative of the large and interesting
kingfisher family is not so gaudily colored as some of the foreign
species and is intermediate in size between the largest and the
smallest members of the family, but it is an interesting bird,
striking in appearance and voice, and unique in form. Its long,
heavy bill and its large head with its prominent crest, contrasting
with its diminutive feet and its short tail, seem entirely out
of balance and give it a top-heavy appearance. But its peculiar
proportions and structure are beautifully adapted for the life it
leads; its large beak and head form an effective spearhead for use
in its deep plunges, and they are well built to stand the shocks
of frequent diving. Unlike the osprey, it does not need to use its
feet in fishing; but the short legs and shovellike feet are most
useful in shoveling the loose soil from its nesting burrows, after
it has been loosened by the powerful beak.
The belted kingfisher, as a species, covers nearly all the North
American Continent, breeding from northern Alaska and central
Labrador southward to the southern border of the United States.
Being essentially a fish-eating bird, its haunts are naturally
near large or small bodies of water. It is common on the seacoast
and estuaries, where it may be seen perched on some stake or pier,
watching for its prey; or along the shore of a lake or pond, its
favorite outlook may be the branch of a tree overhanging the water;
I believe that it prefers to perch on a dead or leafless branch,
where its view is unobstructed. Trout brooks, especially swift
and rocky mountain streams, are favorite resorts, where its loud,
rattling cry is often heard, as it flies up and down, patrolling
its chosen fishing ground and driving away any intruders of its own
species; it prefers to play the role of the lone fisherman.
_Courtship._--Very little seems to be known about the kingfisher’s
courtship. Laurence B. Potter says in his notes: “Sometimes I have
watched as many as five or six high up in the air, tumbling and
wheeling about, uttering their harsh rattle; they appear to be
doing it merely for the joy of flying, or it may be their courtship
antics.” Francis H. Allen writes to me: “From courting birds--a
group of them--I have heard a mewing note uttered in rapid
succession, almost if not quite as loud as the familiar rattle of
the species. These same birds--or two of them at least--also kept
up a continual, prolonged rattle.”
_Nesting._--The nest of the belted kingfisher is almost invariably
in a burrow in a sandy, clay, or gravelly bank, excavated by the
birds themselves. The site chosen is preferably near water and as
near the favorite fishing grounds of the birds as a suitable bank
can be found. But such banks are not always to be found in the most
convenient places, so the birds are forced to nest in any bank they
can find, often at a long distance from any water, such as the
embankment of a railroad cut, the cliff of a sand dune, or a bank
by a roadside where sand or gravel has been taken out for grading.
On Cape Cod, the sandpits made while sanding cranberry bogs are
favorite sites. The burrow may be at any height from the base of
the cliff, depending on the height of the cliff, but it is usually
not more than 2 or 3 feet from the top, though Major Bendire (1895)
says that it is sometimes as much as 20 feet below the top of the
cliff. The burrow extends inward, sloping slightly upward, for
varying distances, usually from 3 to 6 feet, but sometimes as much
as 10 or even 15 feet; as kingfishers sometimes use the same burrow
for several years in succession, it may be that the deepest burrows
are the oldest and have been extended from year to year to provide
a fresh, clean nest. The burrow is usually straight, or nearly
so, but often it curves somewhat, or makes a more or less abrupt
turn to the right or left. One that I dug out ran straight in for
3 feet, made an abrupt turn to the left, and then made a reverse
curve, so that the nest was only about 2 feet from the face of the
cliff. The entrance and the tunnel itself are not quite circular,
being usually about 3½ to 4 inches wide and 3 to 3½ inches high;
an occupied burrow can generally be recognized by the footmarks of
the bird, a central ridge with a furrow on each side of it, made by
the bird as it enters or leaves the nest. The nest is placed in an
enlarged chamber, which may be directly at the end of the tunnel,
or a little to one side of it, and usually a little above the level
of the tunnel. The chamber varies considerably in size and shape
but is approximately circular and dome-shaped; it is usually 10
to 12 inches in diameter and 6 to 7 inches in height. Often the
eggs are laid on the bare sand or gravel which probably indicates
that the nest is a new one, or that the eggs are fresh; oftener,
perhaps, the nesting chamber is lined with bits of clean, white
fish bones, fish scales, or fragments of the shells of crustaceans;
these, I believe, are the remains of ejected pellets and indicate
that the nest has been previously occupied by young birds or that
the female has been fed on the nest for some time; there is no
evidence to indicate that the birds ever bring in such material
intentionally.
Bendire (1895) writes:
The time required to dig out a burrow depends largely on
the nature of the soil to be removed, taking sometimes two
or three weeks, but generally much less. I have personally
seen an instance where a pair of these birds excavated a
new burrow in a rather friable clay bank near Fort Lapwai,
Idaho, to a depth of 5 feet (estimated measurement) in a
little over three days. How they managed to dig so rapidly,
considering their short and weak-looking feet, with which
they must remove the greater part of the material, has
always been a mystery to me, and I would not believe them
capable of accomplishing such an amount of work had I not
seen it done. When not disturbed the same nesting site is
resorted to from year to year. Sometimes the male burrows
an additional hole near the occupied nesting site, usually
not over 3 feet deep, to which it retires to feed and to
pass the night.
Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1932) published the following account on the
authority of Miss Frances Densmore, of Red Wing, Minn.:
On April 25, 1928, I found a pair of Kingfishers digging
their tunnel at the top of a high cut about a foot below
the surface, just where the black loam met the under sand,
some one hundred feet, or thereabouts, above the water.
They both dug, taking turn and turn about, except when she
thought he hadn’t stayed in long enough and sent him back.
After watching them for an hour or more I formed a theory
as to how they managed it. One would go in and work for two
or three minutes and then push the dirt ahead of it to the
entrance and fly out over it. No dirt ever came out with
the bird that had been digging, but when the other went
in there was a veritable fountain spurting out for nearly
a minute after it entered. Then this subsided and more
digging was done by the bird that had cleared the hole.
They kept very close to their schedule of two or three
minutes each. On this day the dirt they brought out was
sand, but on the 27th it was black loam from above, and I
decided that they had got back to their “sitting room.” On
May 1 they weren’t working and, as both were in and out at
the same time, I judged that there was room to turn and
that they would call it done.
Dr. A. K. Fisher wrote to Major Bendire (1895) as follows:
On June 6, 1882, the writer found two nests of the
Kingfisher in the side of a railroad cut near Croton Lake,
Westchester County, New York. The burrows were placed in a
bank not over 7 feet above the roadbed and within 18 inches
of the top. That of the first one ran in about 7 feet and
turned to the right as it entered the nesting chamber. The
seven fresh eggs were placed in a nest of coarse grass,
which, although rather scanty, covered the floor of the
cavity on all sides. The burrow of the second one extended
in about 4½ feet, and, like the other previously mentioned,
turned toward the right as the expanded nesting cavity was
reached. The nest, which was quite elaborate, was composed
wholly of fish scales and bones, arranged in a compact,
saucer-shaped mass. The writer made a tunnel from the top
of the bank so as to intercept the burrow as it entered
the nesting cavity. Viewed through this hole, the nest was
a beautiful affair. The scales, which looked as if made
of frosted silver, formed a delicate setting for the six
pure-white eggs lying in the center, and by the projected
light made a most effective picture. On two occasions,
near Sing Sing, New York, the writer found the Kingfisher
and Rough-winged Swallow using burrows having a common
entrance. It is probable in each case that the swallow
had commenced its diverging burrow after the larger bird
completed its work.
A few cases have been recorded of the kingfisher nesting in other
cavities, where suitable sandbanks were not available. Mr. Forbush
(1927) says: “Mr. Herbert F. Moulton of Ware, Massachusetts,
tells me that he found a kingfisher’s nest in a plowed field on
a hillside. The entrance was made in a ‘dead furrow.’” Arthur H.
Howell (1932) says: “Baynard (1913) writes that in Alachua County
[Florida] the Kingfisher nests early in April in holes in dead
trees or stubs over water. He states, also (verbally), that he once
found a nest at Clearwater, 4 feet above water in a leaning stub,
the entrance hole being on the under side; this nest contained 4
eggs on May 6.”
Beyer, Allison, and Kopman (1908), referring to Louisiana, say:
The character of the nest varies greatly with different
conditions of soil. On the coast it is content with such
elevations as can be found on the shores, and the burrow
is sometimes scarcely more than a pocket in the clayey
banks; in the upper districts, the site is often far from
water, and the soft, coarse-grained soil renders easy the
excavation of a burrow five or six feet deep, enlarged at
the end, and often partly lined with leaves and pine straw;
and finally, a unique condition exists in the extensive
gum-swamps in the lake region of the southeast, where the
land--always submerged--is perfectly flat, and nothing
stands above water except innumerable trees and stumps of
Nyssa; the nest is placed in the top of a decaying stump,
with no attempt at excavation.
But tree-nesting is not wholly confined to the southern swamps, for
Dr. George M. Sutton (1928) writes: