Virginia's coastal marshes support a myriad of bird species that rely on waters to provide fish as their main food, and they are equipped with a wide array of natural tools and abilities to capture them. 

     If you’ve ever spent any time along a lake or river, you’ve probably heard the piercing, rattling call of the belted kingfisher, a bird that is common over much of North America. The kingfisher fly with deep, irregular wing beats; beating fast at first, then changing to slower easy beats. A kingfisher will have regular lookout perches along the shore that it visits throughout the day. When it spots a fish or other prey, it will fly to a spot above it, hover briefly, beating its wings rapidly. The kingfisher can spot a small fish from 30 or more feet above the water, if it’s reasonably clear. Suddenly it closes its wings and plummets downward, knifing into the water to catch its prey. If successful, the kingfisher flies up to a barren branch, hammers the fish on the head to "relax" it, then flips it to swallow it head first.

     Normally kingfishers stick to freshwater lakes, ponds, and streams, from the mountains to the coast. But they can also be seen on tidal brackish rivers, and they’ll even inhabit, or at least fish, the salty, coastal tidal creeks, and bay shores.

     Coastal residents and visitors regularly see those large black birds with longish tails, flying in long strings or goose-like formations, with outstretched necks, and head held a little higher than horizontal. Occasionally they stop their wing beats and sail. When swimming, they hold their bill on an upward tilt. When perched they hold their bill upward and spread their wings in order to dry their feathers. They are fish eaters with long, narrow bills that have serrated edges, and a little hook on the end, perfect for catching and holding fish. They are excellent divers and swimmers, riding low in the water, and are able to dive quickly. They are designed perfectly to do what they do.

     Cormorants are more abundant than ever and widely distributed, nesting around fresh, brackish or saltwater, but mainly in the St. Lawrence River, Great Lakes area, and the prairie regions of the Midwest and Canada. Actually there are two species now in our area, the native double-crested cormorant and the great cormorant. The great cormorant is increasing its range southward and both are increasing in numbers to the point of being blamed for the loss of fish stocks in Lake Erie and other places.

     When we’re at the beach, the "rivah," or any coastal waters, we see numerous whitish or in some cases brownish birds trading back and forth over the waters searching the waves, uttering calls of various types that mean something to them, nothing to us.

     There’s a tendency for people to just lump them under the name sea gulls. But, in reality, they are not all gulls. Some are gulls and some are terns. Actually none of them are sea gulls. They don’t live at sea, but in close association with the land.

     Gulls are graceful flyers with long wings. They are chunkier than terns, have wider wings, longer legs, square or rounded tails, and slightly hooked bills. Terns are sleeker in build, have long, narrow wings and forked tails. They are often referred to as sea swallows.

     Gulls search the waves mainly for scraps of dead or dying animals—they are scavengers. Only occasionally will they dive for schooling fish. They mainly dive for baitfish that are wounded or chopped up by feeding schools of predatory fish. In some cases they may sit right down on the water at the mouth of a small creek and feed off of schools of baitfish moving in or out with the tides. Terns do not sit on the water. They wander over the water waves with head and narrow bill pointed down, flying with erratic wing beats, looking for fish. When they see a school of small fish they hover, then plunge head first, with great force into the water.
Most of our common gulls of summer are the laughing gull, ring-billed gull, herring gull, and the great black-backed gull. The calls of the laughing gulls are the sound of summer along Virginia's coastal waters. Their black heads, grayish backs, white undersides, and bright red bill are actually quite attractive, especially during breeding. The ring-billed gulls have the dark ring around their bills, the herring gull the red spot on their lower mandible, and the great black-backed has just that--a black back. Those vary-colored, brownish gulls are either first, second or third year gulls of the varying species. It takes three to four years to reach full adult plumage!

     Our most common summer terns are the common tern, the royal tern,and the little or least tern. The common tern is frequently seen on poles and posts sticking out of the water. The common tern and the little tern have black caps, but the little tern has a white forehead. The royal has a shaggy black cap that extends behind its head. Royal terns nest in big colonies on beaches and sand spits, as do the little or least tern.
The Chesapeake and its tributaries host a wide array of herons and egrets drawn by the abundance of fish, crabs, insects, and shellfish. The green-backed heron is the smallest of our herons, the least bittern, a close relative, being a bit smaller. Unlike the other herons and egrets which nest in colonies, the green-backed is a loner, preferring to nest away from water, often in a tall pine tree. It is more prone to be seen on freshwater ponds, lakes and rivers, but sometimes in the fresh upper stretches of creeks running into the Bay.

     While it appears to be awkward and clumsy in trees or shoreline vegetation, it is a patient and stealthy fisher, catching frogs, fish, and other aquatic creatures. When it first takes flight, it flies with quick wing beats, then settles into the typical rhythmic heron-like wing beats. It used to be known simply as the green heron. Some other names include “fly-up-the-creek”, “skeeow,” or “shite poke.” 

     In spring, fall and winter, the Chesapeake Bay will host a variety of other fish-eating migrant birds and winter resident birds as well, including the three species of mergansers, two or three more species of terns, Bonaparte's gulls, and two or three species of loons. They know they can live in style on the Chesapeake. 

© 2001 Spike Knuth All rights reserved