Fish Feeding Formula
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 15 Aug 2015
Catching fish from water is just one part of the challenge for this Common Kingfisher. While other fish eating animals like bears, fishing cat, otters, fishing eagle, osprey or fishing owls tear the flesh of fish and eat them, these kingfishers must swallow the fish whole. There are two problems in swallowing its prey whole.
Problem number 1: The prey is alive. It will twitch and struggle hard and surely damage the internal organs. How will this little bird kill it?
Problem number 2: The bird has to swallow the head first to ensure that the scales slide down smoothly. However, the large and strong fish skull will not enter into the throat without causing severe pain.
No kingfisher has enough strength in its beak to crush the fish’s skull. They can neither chew their prey, nor gifted with stretchable jaws like snakes. So, how will it eat?
The birds have one simple solution. The kingfishers hit their prey against hard surfaces before swallowing. Note that the Common Kingfisher here adjusts the fish’s head to face towards ground and hits it really hard.
Such impactful hits kill the prey instantly, while also breaking skull. The same phenomenon can be observed in other birds like bee-eaters as well, which use this technique to crack the hard shells of the insects they catch, before they swallow them.