a lifetime burning

By Sheol

Cough it up

Another kingfisher shot, this one is a male, busy coughing up a pellet.  

As you probably know, birds like owls and kingfishers form a pellet of the undigested parts of their prey which they then cough up.  In this case, as its a kingfisher, that white ball will largely consist of fish bones and scales.

I find it amazing that such a small bird has the room inside itself to enable it to digest fish in this way, particularly when you see the size of some of the fish they catch.  Yesterday's female kingfisher only had a tiddler of a fish in that photo.  

I appreciate that this is not the most attractive presentation of a kingfisher, but its interesting to see, nonetheless.

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