Opportunistic Snatch

This event unfolded when I was in Nalabana in Chilika, Odisha.
I saw a Greater Cormorant in the water feeding when it caught a fish which was bigger than it could handle. It struggled for a while trying to swallow it, occasionally dropping it and picking it again. A brahminy Kite saw this from the distance and started in the direction of the Cormorant. The cormorant seeing this dipped into the water to evade it. It did this a few times till the time it actually let go of the fish. The Kite swooped in and grabbed the fish and flew off to the distance...

The cormorant continued fishing!!!

The sequence of events...

The attack...

Claiming the prize...

Even if the cormorant was underwater, the Brahminy kite managed to grab the fish from it. Shows how good its tracking and attacking skills are. Nice natural history moments captured. Thanks for sharing.

Rarely an animal or bird will let go an opportunity. This shows it clearly.

Nicely recorded. Most of us know the kite as a scavenger or a thief, compared to the more 'expert' predatory raptors... this record shows that thievery requires no less skill :D.
TFS

Sequences of events depicting one of the ways of its living and persistence in approach by picking fish off the surface of water are nicely documented.
We may not impose all sections of IPC when it does hunting too. Thanks for sharing.Saktiwild