pair of Belted Kingfishers
Acrylic on panel, 19 x 17 7/8 in. (2005)

Unlike most male-female partnerships in the bird world, it is the female that flaunts the more impressive colourations. In this case, the rusty coloured sash indicates the female, not the more plain male.

While not perhaps a true Norman Rockwell depiction, I am showing the female doing most of the work, while the male awaits a truly shareable repast. That is of course if you like fish . . .

Kingfishers possess a lovely rattle rather than a song. For those who may not be familiar with these guys, they can be seen often loping from tree-to-tree along a shoreline, in long, deep arcs down to the water and back up, looking for yet another fine specimen of the piscean ranks.

By-the-by (if not by-the-sea), both parents actually fish for their annual brood of two to four mohawk-haircutted youngings.