Belted kingfishers are seasonally monogamous. Pair bonds are formed soon after the male establishes his territory. During courtship, the male sings mewing songs to the female, and also feeds her. There are no known pre-copulatory displays, but after copulation, the male, followed by the female, often performs a flight display in which he soars and dips his wings close to the surface of the water. After mating, the pair digs a long tunnel (active nests have a tunnel at least 80cm long) into a wall of clay or sand. At the end, they dig a nesting cavity. Sometimes swallows will share the tunnel, making bungalows in the sides of the wall. Belted kingfishers are believed to select the nest site as a pair; they find an acceptable area and the male begins to slash at the substrate with his bill. The female is never perched far away, and will call to him continuously during this process. They also constantly rattle-call to each other during the actual digging of the tunnel, which is done by both sexes. (Hamas, 1994; Fry, 1992; http://www.efn.org/~jpreed/Eddy1.html; http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/birds/kingfisher.html)
Mating System: monogamous
Belted kingfishers prefer to construct nesting burrows near their fishing territory, but nest sites can be located far away from water. They usually lay 6-8 pure white, glossy eggs. Egg incubation lasts 22 to 24 days. Belted kingfishers will nest again only if the first group of eggs is destroyed.
Breeding interval: Belted kingfishers breed once yearly, unless their first clutch is destroyed.
Breeding season: Breeding season varies with latitude, from January in the south to June in the north.
Range eggs per season: 5 to 8.
Average time to hatching: 22.0 days.
Average fledging age: 28.0 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 10.0 months.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 10.0 months.
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); asexual ; fertilization
Both parents incubate, with the female sitting through the night, and the male taking her place in the early morning. The male sometimes feeds the female while she sits. Belted kingfishers will renest only if the first clutch is destroyed. The young are brooded constantly for 3-6 days after hatching, usually by the female. Food is regurgitated for the chicks, and the male feeds them twice as often as the female. Fledgings leave the burrow around the 28th day. The young remain with the parents for about 3 weeks, and are fed by them with increasing irregularity for this amount of time. Eventually, the parents refuse to feed them anymore, and the chicks are thus forced to feed themselves. (Hamas, 1994; Fry, 1992; http://www.efn.org/~jpreed/Eddy1.html; http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/birds/kingfisher.html)
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female)