Kingfishers don't retrieve dropped fish? (1 Viewer)

[tenex]

Continuing the Belted Kingfisher theme: we watched one hover about 15ft/4m over a different pond this afternoon, dive to catch a silvery sardine-sized fish, fly off with it to the top of a nearby tree, flip it around head-first to swallow it... and then drop it to the ground below, a slope littered with leaves and small branches. Would she have tried to retrieve it on plainer ground (which she could easily have chosen), or does the lack of interest suggest that this happens so seldom it's not a problem?

 

[Parabellum]

Continuing the Belted Kingfisher theme: we watched one hover about 15ft/4m over a different pond this afternoon, dive to catch a silvery sardine-sized fish, fly off with it to the top of a nearby tree, flip it around head-first to swallow it... and then drop it to the ground below, a slope littered with leaves and small branches. Would she have tried to retrieve it on plainer ground (which she could easily have chosen), or does the lack of interest suggest that this happens so seldom it's not a problem?

That is a neat observation and im hoping to hear an answer if anyone's got it. Ive not seen a kingfisher here but further south there more common.