Owls and Kingfishers

At first glance apart from being birds you wouldn't think there was much these two had in common. One is a silent land based predator, the other a multi-coloured waterside assassin. But when it comes to digestion they have one thing in common, they both regurgitate pellets made up of the indigestible leftovers from their meals.

Most people know about owl pellets and may at some time have dissected one to find tiny bones or even skulls coughed out in a hard pellet. Not many people however know that kingfishers do the same but as the majority go straight into the river, lake or stream they are rarely discovered to take a closer look at. I once watched a kingfisher eject one into the grass and after it had flown off I endeavoured to find it. Nothing, it had just vanished!

Last night I managed to catch this behaviour on camera after I noticed the bird opening its beak very wide. I had an inclination as to what it was doing so fired away.

With its beak wide open the bird starts bringing up the pellet.

Here we can see the regurgitated pellet as it passes into the beak.

Finally the pellet is spat out, and as usual this one disappeared into the depths!!!