Our resident kingfishers have fledged two more young this year, as in the past few years. I noticed them after the initial fishing lessons had been given, but the two young ones have been hanging around here, sitting on low snags and practicing their fishing a lot. I'm prompted to write because the question of juvenile plumage has come up again; we may have discussed this at one time, but I can't find any messages. The juvenile kingfishers are almost identical to adults, with a few distinctive marks. The National Geographic Guide points to rusty spotting in the blue breast band, and Sibley also notes that this breast band is darker in juveniles; Sibley points to the white collar as evidently being wider in juveniles, but I don't see this. Bent noted the color of the breast band and noted that juvenile males have almost as much of the rusty belly band as juvenile females, which have less than adult females. Bent also mentioned the crest being darker than in adults, and to me this is the most outstanding feature; the entire head looks very dark, compared to the body. Am I wrong in seeing that the head is darker than in adult plumage? If I'm right, I'm puzzled that the newer guides don't mention this point.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503