I believed I was privy to another lesson of the juvy White-throated Kingfisher who is more than two months old now.
The usual avian commotion alerted me to a happening and I rushed in time to look into a window, literally, of activity. The adult kingfisher was busy slamming its catch against the branch. And it went on and on that it even enabled me to video it, which I thought was strange as the fish was probably lifeless by now.
And then it kept looking to its right, and soon enough a shadow of a beak emerged.
Was the parent doing it to lure the juvy out? And it or she as this one looked like the female continued to flip and toss and slam the fish.
And then the sound of a plantain squirrel was heard and time seemed to halt to a standstill, and both pair froze.
With the squirrel gone, the parent resumed her act, which had me raking my brain again. Meanwhile it got curiouser as junior slid up and down along the branch, to and away from the parent.
The reappearance of the squirrel had the parent in defensive stance and flight, and I thought I'd never get to the bottom of this, or perhaps it's simply another feeding session interrupted.
Fortunately I managed to race and track the parent to where she had landed, and it looked like the whole process was re-enacted, even as the poor fish looked absolutely lifeless.
As the line in 'Hamlet' goes 'Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't', so is there a 'method' in this display'?!
It went on till the juvy flew in, and the parent immediately took off.
This time it was to a spot that challenged me to focus, and failed, but fortunately it was only for seconds as the parent took off again!
It touched down and when the juvy appeared it was a touch and go moment as the juvy left for good, leaving the parent to fly off into a shaded spot.
And I thought that the juvy was going to appear again or the parent was going to go after it with the catch. But nope, she feasted, or rather attempted to swallow her catch, which by the second attempt had me started counting.
1st attempt
2nd attempt
3rd attempt
4th attempt
And success
And so too ended my discomfort watching it!
No doubt this meal would keep her going for a while but was her lesson effective?
I hope I would be privy to see the juvy hunting successfully on its own one of these days.
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