As I've written in previous years wintertime brings a lot of sacred kingfishers down to our estuary, where crabs seem abundant resulting in a great food source for the birds. On several afternoons recently I've spent a couple of hours waiting by suitable perches as the birds flit around the estuary. I saw one kingfisher catch and devour four crabs in 15 minutes, and then she sat, and sat, and sat on the rock. Eventually it coughed up a pellet of indigestible food, which I was able to capture at 40 frames a second on my Canon R1. I've often watched kingfishers bashing crabs on a log or rock, thinking it was just trying to kill it, and maybe soften it. I now know another purpose for all the bashing - attempting to knock off all its legs with those indigestible claws - see picture below.
