Hi Tweets,
Yesterday morning 8/17, around 9 am, a kingfisher-like bird was perched on
the railing of a small boat moored offshore ~100 yds from the north end of
the Lincoln Park beach. S/he was unusual to me for a Belted Kingfisher in
that it (going to the simpler neutral pronoun now) (1) was or at least
looked somewhat larger than I'm used to for a Belted Kingfisher, (2) had
what looked like a black head; (3) looked russet-colored all the way down
its belly except for two broad white stripes, in contrast to my usual
perception of them as basically white-breasted except for a bluish and a
reddish stripe; (4) had little of the bluish tint I associate with them at
neck and on back.
Once I got back home to my Nat Geog guide, it actually looked more like a
Ringed Kingfisher than anything else in the book -- but I've embarrassed
myself enough times by getting mistakenly excited about out-of-range (in
this case *way*) birds to think that's what it was. Early-morning lighting
could have been misleading, I could've miscalibrated the size of the
offshore boat, or maybe my binocs just need cleaning...just wanted to let
you know anyway!

Good birding,
Trileigh Tucker
Lincoln Park
West Seattle