Next to an eagle’s call or a great blue heron’s grouchy squawking, it’s a kingfisher’s loud Morse-code-quick rattling that requires me to stop, listen and look. It’s a bird that looks pieced together ...

My wife Laurie and I were recently escorted along the Black River Oxbow by a male Belted Kingfisher. As we paddled our tandem kayak quietly through the still water, he zig-zagged ahead of us ...

Senior columnist Maggie Knutte and columnist Grayson Hodson share opposing perspectives on replacing the mascot for the Illini. Knutte argues in favor of a replacement with the belted kingfisher, ...

A belted kingfisher is making the rounds as a potential mascot for the University. “These birds are orange and blue, literally. That’s perfect,” said designer Spencer Hulsey, senior in LAS. Growing up ...

URBANA — The idea came to Spencer Hulsey in a doodle. During a physics discussion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she idly sketched out a belted kingfisher, a blue and orange bird ...

It’s nice to know your purpose in life, and the belted kingfisher has found its true calling as the supreme catcher of fish. The kingfisher is basically like a beak with wings, diving headfirst into ...