What goes up, must come down

Danny

Active Member
Yes what goes up, must come down, but sometimes, just sometimes, what goes down must come up.

New Zealand Kingfisher. These are seashore Kingfisher that go after small crabs at low tide. They will spit out a pellet like a lot of other birds do with things they can't digest. In the Kingfisher case, it's the shells, sand, etc.

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More than you ever wanted to know :) :)

Danny.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Ha ha.... and I was just about to eat dinner too... o_O

Really nice work on this. I like your focus and your DOF. These birds are pretty amazing.
 

Danny

Active Member
Great timing! How long did you watch these guys?
Kingfisher, around 25 years :) Just kidding.

I know that after 7-9 small crabs they will discard what they can't digest. So that all becomes predictable after awhile. I have thousands of Kingfisher shots, so I understand them fairly well. Quite happy to walk around or sit for hours just waiting.

All the best.

Danny.
 

Danny

Active Member
Ha ha.... and I was just about to eat dinner too... o_O

Really nice work on this. I like your focus and your DOF. These birds are pretty amazing.
Ha, I know the feeling well. I won't post up the Cormorant transferring food to it's young then ;) It's not a pretty sight! Those are with the 40 year old Canon FD 500 F/4.5L on the Sony NEX-7. I still use a lot of manual focus tele lenses even for inflight. It just feel right.
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
Nice sequence to record the feeding habits of this critter. I am guessing there's a pretty good wait from the time the bird ingests the crab and when the pieces get ejected.
 

Danny

Active Member
Nice sequence to record the feeding habits of this critter. I am guessing there's a pretty good wait from the time the bird ingests the crab and when the pieces get ejected.
It's actually very easy Alan. After 7-9 small crabs this will happen. Tell tale sign is they sit on a perch for a long time before hand. They just sit there without going out on the hunt, then the head starts to move, the nictitating eye lid comes over and then the beak opens, click, click, click.
 

Eric Gofreed

Well-Known Member
Yes what goes up, must come down, but sometimes, just sometimes, what goes down must come up.

New Zealand Kingfisher. These are seashore kingfishers that go after small crabs at low tide. They will spit out a pellet like a lot of other birds do with things they can't digest. In the Kingfisher case, it's the shells, sand, etc.

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More than you ever wanted to know :) :)

Danny.
Fantastic series, Danny. Highest compliments.
 

Beth

Well-Known Member
great shots of the kingfisher. nice timing too. i like how you've learned the patterns enough to predict what will happen.
 
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