Plate 77 – Belted Kingfisher

Exploring the Texas coast during the spring of 1837 did not allow John James Audubon to discover new species as much as it did for Audubon to learn more about the migration of birds and to expand the range of those birds considered resident. After seeing the Belted Kingfisher all along the Gulf Coast and resident just about everywhere else in the eastern United States, Audubon was of the opinion that the bird was in need of a name change. “The Belted Kingfisher!–Now, kind reader, were I infected with the desire of giving new names to well-known objects, you may be assured that, notwithstanding the partly appropriate name given to this bird, I should call it, as I think it ought to have been called, the United States’ King-fisher.” Some might wonder further that where there is a king there is, in almost every case, a queen. Scientists will maybe recognize one day that the male Belted kingfisher (without the brown belt) and the female Belted kingfisher (with the brown belt) are much more so royalfishers or monarchfishers than kingfishers.