my friend WB King Fisher

[Rajeev Khanna]

pictures showing WB King fisher Dispatching a fish

[Rajeev Khanna]

the KF smashed the fish on a branch to kill it

[Rajeev Khanna]

The KF is trying to turn this rather large fish head first to swallow it took quite a long time doing this

[Rajeev Khanna]

Down the hatch

[Rajeev Khanna]

That was Yum

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice sequence of events captured Rajeevji. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

After watching this nice sequence people will be able to visualise better. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice sequence of events.
The Kingfisher has caught a particular variety of Catfish,called Magur in Bengal.The two pectoral fins of this catfish have very rigid sharp spines in them,which have often caused grave injuries to Monocled Cobras of Bengal who also like fish.We are also aware that the digestive system of Python is slow but strong enough to digest bones.
In the photograph(s) it is seen how skillfully the Kingfisher is dealing with fins with sharp spines so that no injury is caused to its throat. The digestive system of Kingfisher is not that strong to digest sharp spines and bones. I guess, after absorbing the soft flesh, it will have to vomit the residual bones and spines.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rajeev Bhai,
You will be pleased to know that your first image resembles a sketch of this bird drawn by our great naturalist teacher which formed a part of his article in the Country Notebook on White-breasted Kingfisher: "Lost in moody introspection". I shall post his article sometime today in the thread :Country Notebook-M.Krishnan.

The title for your first image has been written by him six decades back :
"Lost in moody introspection."
How fortunate you are.

Kind regards,
SaktiWild

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

I must clarify one point with regard to the posting made by me on 04-09-2012 at 7.08 A.M.

The first image of the bird posted by Rajeev Bhai almost resembled the sketch of the White-breasted Kingfisher drawn by M.Krishnan and forming a part of his Country Notebook column titled- "Lost in moody introspection." I read the article in The Sunday Statesman on 02-09-2012 and noticed the resemblance. I wrote about the same from my memory at 7.08 A.M yesterday.
Yesterday while posting the article afterwards at 12.50 P.M, in Country Notebook thread, I noticed that the sitting pose of the bird looks alike in both, but there was no fish within the beaks of bird in the sketch.
My overall comments remain the same.SaktiWild