Wild Adventures Blog
Journey to the wild
A Ball of Bones
Waking up to the sounds of nature has always been a pleasure for me. Heading off to the bird hide at Intaka Island in Century City, Cape Town makes this early morning experience even more enjoyable.
This morning I had the most bizarre experience. After spending around two hours at the hide taking in the playful sights of the resident pair of Malachite Kingfishers, Grey Heron and some Red Knobbed Coots, I witnessed something that I had never seen before. To be honest I never thought that this was even possible.
Two Pied Kingfishers flew in and took their positions on a nearby perch. I was delighted to see two Pied Kingfishers simultaneously. After watching them for a few minutes, I noticed that the Pied Kingfisher at the top of the perch changed its behaviour. It almost stiffened up and then proceeded to open its beak quite wide. Then, to my surprise, it coughed up a little white ball and dropped it into the water. Not ever having witnessed this from birds before, I wasn’t sure what was happening. I asked the photographer next to me and he informed me that it was actually the bones and remnants of fish that the birds can’t digest. I found this absolutely fascinating and did not expect to see this happening on a quiet Saturday morning.
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This is freakin’ amazeballs, Cal. It’s just brilliant the way you managed to capture the moment, awesome!
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