Been following this thread about kingfisher nests. This past summer, and
will keep better watch this summer, at the Des Moines, WA Marina, I
wondered if one of our local pairs of kingfishers might be nesting in a
cavity in our rock jetty (on the marina side, not the Puget Sound side).
These are fairly large, piled up rocks as is typical of marina jetties
with minimal, if any, dirt. Stealthy behavior and disappearing into the
rocks, but not sure she was carrying food, caught my eye. This would be
an interesting adaptation if true; how would the parent birds protect the
eggs/nestlings against the lovely rufous form of Rattus norvegicus that
also lives here?
Will keep you posted,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA
********************************Thread Below******************************
On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, Christopher Hill wrote:

> Kingfishers excavate a burrow 2 to 3 feet long into a cutbank. They
> usually use cutbanks along streams or rivers, but will fly quite a
> distance from a good feeding area to nest in, for example, a gravel pit
> with steep walls, if no natural cutbanks are available. I am not aware
> of Kingfishers, or any other birds that excavates dirt burrows (like Bank
> Swallows) accepting a nest box as a substitute. I'm no kingfisher expert,
> though. As a card carrying academic, I have to spend a lot of time on
> pecking order stuff, you know, so I don't get to read as much as I'd like
> ;)
>
> Chris Hill
> Everett, WA
> cehill at u.washington.edu
>
>
>