Largest kingfisher in the Americas with exceptionally enormous bills and raucous calls. Blue-grey with shaggy crest, white-collar, and rufous belly. Male and female similar, but note different breast pattern: entirely rufous on male, while the female has blue-grey band bordered by white. Often conspicuous, searching shallow water for fish from a prominent perch and chattering noisily when disturbed. Singles or pairs are often observed flying high overhead and giving loud “keck” calls, nests in burrows excavated in banks, generally along watercourses.
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