Black Kite eating in flight

[Atul Sinai]

A fine Sunday morning and I was photographing birds at Sangamwadi, Pune. There were some Painted Storks, Grey Herons, Cormorants, Kingfishers and Black Kites.

I was shooting Eurasian kingfisher in it natural habitat. Something in the air drew my attention; it appeared like a black kite was flying with a catch. I quickly released my lens from the tripod and started tracking the action.
What I happen to observe did surprise me a bit as I was not aware about this behavior of the black kite. The black kite was eating in the flight. As the kite was flying 77m away, I had to crop my images to get a closer look to the action.

It was fascinating to watch it do that.

Two days later I observed another black kite eating in flight, unfortunately no usable images on this occasion as it was flying far away. On this occasion a house crow was troubling the black kite hoping that it drops the catch in panic; but that didn’t happen. The black kite enjoyed its hard earned meal.