On Wednesday I wrote about a Kingfisher Sweep of all six species in Costa Rica but that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to kingfishers. Worldwide there are 117 species and all but six of them are native to Asia, Africa and Australia.
The kingfisher family (Alcedinidae) is in the order Coraciiformes along with bee-eaters, todies, motmots, rollers and ground-rollers, all of whom share this behavior: They beat their prey against a hard surface to kill or stun it, to break it up a bit and, in the case of bee-eaters, to remove stingers.
Watch three members of the kingfisher family beating up their dinner.
The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), pictured at top, is native to Eurasia and the north edge of Africa. Though his head, neck and beak make him look large, he is only slightly larger than a house sparrow.
Another clip from the River Kelvin in Glasgow. This was an epic struggle between Kingfisher and, I think, an eel elver. Lasted several minutes; we think he won but he flew off to the other side of the river to finish the job. Starts full speed, then goes slow-mo, no sound. #birdspic.twitter.com/G9Zhc0WncP
The pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) is about the size of a blue jay. He lives in Africa and Asia.
Pied kingfisher, male (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
This pied kingfisher was whacking a fish at St. Lucia park, KwaZulu-Natal [South Africa]. I left the entire video uncut to demonstrate how long it was at this. It flew off after a few minutes and kept hitting the fish against another rock.
The laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae), twice the size of our belted kingfisher, is one of 5 kookaburra species found in Australia and Indonesia. Watch him subdue a beetle.
Though there are about 118 species of kingfishers worldwide, most of them are native to Africa and Asia. There are only six kingfisher species in the western hemisphere and we saw all of them on a single day at Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica, 23 January 2026. Here’s who’s in the Kingfisher Sweep.
Largest of the six, ringed kingfishers range from southern Texas to South America. They are solitary except during the breeding season when they nest in holes in river banks like their close relatives the belted kingfisher. Size: male 254–330g, female 274–325g.
Second largest on the list and familiar throughout North America, the belted kingfisher winters as far south the Caribbean coast of South America. He’s the sixth species, but only in winter. Size: 140-170 g
Third largest on the list, the Amazon kingfisher is “a resident of lakeshores and large-slow flowing rivers from northern Mexico south to central Argentina,” according to Birds of the World. Size: male 98–121 g, female 125–140 g
American pygmy kingfishers are tiny! Except for their huge beaks they are half the size of a house sparrow. Size: male 10–16g, female 12–16g (House sparrow is 27-29g)
To give you an idea of his size, here’s my cellphone photo of one perched on a small branch above the water. Can’t find him? Click on the image to see a circle around him.
American pygmy kingfisher perched on a small branch over water, 23 Jan 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)
Not large, but fourth largest on the list, “the green-and-rufous kingfisher is found around streams and rivers, from southeast Nicaragua south through the rest of Central America and across much of the northern two-thirds of South America, south as far as eastern Paraguay.” — Birds of the WorldSize: male 40–60g, female 53–62g
With Lake Erie completely(*) frozen, water birds that would have spent all winter on the lake have come south to open water on the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh. This week a couple of white-winged scoters (Melanitta deglandi) that normally spend the winter on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts showed up at Emsworth Locks and Dam on the Ohio.
Charity Kheshgi and I went to see them on Tuesday when it was sunny and 50°F(!). We hoped to see a red-necked grebe that had been there on Monday but no. However we saw many ducks, two ravens tumbling, and four bald eagles (checklist here).
Ed McKaveney photographed the male scoter and a bald eagle on the day before.
At the top I said Lake Erie is completely(*) frozen. Yes it is except … On 8 February northeast winds buffeted Lake Erie’s ice and in just four hours it cracked all the way across the lake as seen on satellite. The crack reaches 80 miles from Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada to Sandusky, Ohio. In some places it is 3km (1.86 miles) wide.
With more snow on the way today in Pittsburgh we need something to take our minds off our troubles. Sea otters are the perfect solution.
Sea otters live among kelp because they eat the organisms that eat kelp. They dive to gather sea urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers, crustaceans, a variety of mollusks, snails and bivalves. Then they float on their backs with their food set on their bellies as they open and eat their prey.
For the next two days we’ll be birding in Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge, 25,100 acres of wetlands in northern Costa Rica less than eight air-miles from the Nicaraguan border. Similar to Florida’s Everglades it is home to many of the same species including roseate spoonbills, anhingas, and great egrets. It also attracts migratory birds during North America’s winter.
“Caño Negro” means “black creek” in Spanish and was so named because the Frio River that feeds it was black from tannins and Raffia palm fruits. The river is browner now due to sediment, and so are Caño Negro waterways, but the original name has stuck. (See the lodge website for a flyover.)
During the rainy season the Frio floods the wetlands but in the December through April dry season it’s reduced to little lagoons, channels and beaches. With better weather (for us) and a lot more birds, this is the time of year to visit.
Birding is the top reason and pretty much the only reason that anyone ventures into the heart of Caño Negro where the only way to travel is by boat.
As NASA satellites continued to track A23a, it wandered and spun its way around South Georgia Island, then struck bottom west of the island in March 2025 where it has been melting in place ever since.
NASA sometimes describes this area of the South Atlantic as the “iceberg graveyard.”
Water at this latitude—about 54 degrees South—is generally warmer than the Southern Ocean [that surrounds Antarctica] and is deadly for icebergs. When Southern Hemisphere winter ends in late September / early October the return of abundant sunlight further warms the water. The lack of sea ice in the vicinity of an iceberg implies that the water is above the freezing point.
This month it was obvious, even from satellite, that A23a is disintegrating. Meltwater is ponding on the surface — visible as blue water — and trickling through the cracks in the ice, further weakening it.
Not all orcas need to visit the tropics for their skin health. Resident orcas on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada use a scraping technique to shed skin. On 2 January (human) residents of Sunshine Coast, BC were treated to this unique behavior when a pod of orcas swam for 20 minutes in shallow water, scraping their bellies on smooth submerged rocks like these.
The resident orcas are so well known that were easily identified.
The group of whales has been identified as northern resident killer whales (NRKW) and the A5 pod, which comprises three different families, according to Jared Towers, the executive director of Bay Cetology.
“As of early Saturday morning, January 3, some areas in Oswego County, including Pulaski and Sandy Creek, had received as much as 4 feet (48 inches) of snow within a 24-hour period since New Year’s Day.” — Syracuse.com
The path of the storm determines which community gets hit and the storm’s intensity. Meteorologist Eric Snitil shows how the storm picked up moisture from four bodies of water.
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Indeed all the Great Lakes were ice free. Here’s the storm’s path superimposed on GLERL’s ice map. Pale blue means open water.
After nearly 60°F yesterday morning we now have snow on the ground.
When temperatures suddenly drop below freezing the National Weather Service warns us of black ice on the roadways. This dangerous transparent thin ice cannot be seen until our cars slide on it.
Black ice also forms on still water such as canals in the Netherlands, above, and a small lake in Sweden, below. It is dangerously thin to skate on it but it makes weird noises when this intrepid skater passes over it. Turn your sound up to hear it.
Winter Solstice sunrise in Pittsburgh, 21 Dec 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
28 December 2025
The painted bunting was not the only thing seen last week but it grabbed the headlines. In other news the Winter Solstice was unusually sunny (photos above and below) and I saw an Infrequent duck at Duck Hollow on Christmas Eve.
Sunny Winter Solstice day, Pittsburgh, 21 Dec 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
The common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a relatively small duck, closely related to buffleheads. The female has a chocolate brown head, a golden tip on her beak, and of course a golden eye. All three tipped me off to her identity.
Female common goldeneye at Duck Hollow, 24 Dec 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)
Common goldeneyes are far from abundant in the Pittsburgh area but actually common in Canada in the breeding season and at the Great Lakes and waterways in the American West in winter as shown on their North American abundance map below.
I had thought that, like buffleheads, goldeneyes were only found in North America but I saw them in Finland last summer. In fact they have a disjoint range on three continents as viewed from the North Pole: Europe, Asia and North America.
