After observing them in the wild since 2008, Bend nature writer Marina Richie knows her way around the solitary, colorful belted kingfisher.

There are 120 species of kingfishers worldwide, but her concern is the belted kingfisher, which is located all over North America, Richie said.

“They are ubiquitous. They’re a bird of waterways all across our country. They are found along the coast of Oregon. They’re on this river,” she said, referring to the Deschutes, a minute’s walk from where we sit in the sun outside an Old Mill coffee shop. “They’re on lakes and ponds, so many habitats.”

Yet because the birds, which are just a bit bigger than robins, are solitary, “They’re often overlooked,” she said.

“Kingfishers don’t like to be in a crowd (other than) with their mate of the season,” Richie said. “Sometimes the young of the year will hang together for a little while, but otherwise … they’re quite territorial.”

The belted kingfisher dives in headfirst to spear small fish with its sharp beak.

Comparing their fishing talents to fly fishermen, Richie said the birds “can read the current. They know what fish are where. They’re at the good fishing spots.”

When not angling for fish, they make their nests in mud banks above rivers, away from vegetation that would make their nests easier to access for snakes or tenacious mammals such as mink. The entranceways stretch several feet back to their football-sized nests.

And belted kingfishers are among the rare bird species in which the female, which has a small band across its chest, is more colorful than the males of the species.

Those are just a few of the facts she unspooled during a recent interview about her new book from Oregon State University Press, “Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher,” a book that “threads natural history, memoir, and myth,” as it says on its back cover.

Richie will be on hand at Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in Bend Sunday to read from and sign “Halcyon Journey,” which she learned on Thursday is the winner of the 2022 National Outdoor Book Award in the category of Journeys.

When you put in the kind of time that she has studying just one critter, you just might make the kind of discovery she and friends made during hours spent in a blind on Rattlesnake Creek, which runs through Missoula, Montana, where she lived prior to moving to Bend in 2017.

Though it was already known kingfishers dig their nest holes mostly with their tiny feet, Richie and her naturalist friends made a new citizen science discovery. A pair of nesting kingfishers took turns flying at the vertical bank from 12 feet away — ramming the bank to start a hole.

Inspiration for the book came about in a few ways, including seeing the word “halcyon” as a dictionary word of the day, and the fact that her father, David Richie, was a national park employee who could identify unseen birds by their calls.

But Richie also wanted the stillness of a daily nature escape. Her thinking: “What if I found a bird — I didn’t know which one at first — that would allow me a reason to spend and immerse as much time as possible in nearby nature?”

After our interview about the book over coffee in the Old Mill District, Richie and this reporter walked over to the nearby Deschutes River and upstream toward Farewell Bend Park, the footbridge, then back downstream on the opposite bank. Like the subtitle of her book, we were in search of the belted kingfisher.

Alas, we didn’t spot any, though we did see a variety of ducks and geese on the river’s cold waters. And now, thanks to Richie, I know what belted kingfishers look and sound like.

“They have these gorgeous crests. They’re super-charismatic. They’ve got this bravado about them — small, cocky, charismatic, bravado,” she said. “They have this call that’s just a ringing, unforgettable staccato that can really vary. … They also just like to talk to themselves. It will be on this perch, looking down at the water … just enjoying life.

“I guess one of the things about them that I love is they bring me to the places I want to be,” Richie said. “Who doesn’t want to be by a beautiful river, creek or stream. There’s so much rich life along the water.”

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. The original version incorrectly described the way in which the birds build their nests. The Bulletin regrets the error.

What: Author Marina Richie reads from and signs “Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher”

When: 2-4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, 135 NW Minnesota Ave., Bend

Cost: Free; book available for purchase

Contact: dudleysbookshopcafe.com or 541-749-2010