Nothing like being tossed around a bit before you are devoured, eh? I almost felt sorry for that little fish. 😉
In fact, this is a common thing done by these birds. They catch the fish toward the tip of their beak which of course makes it kind of hard to get into their mouth. So, they flip the fish in the air and then nab it closer to the base of the beak making it easier to get into their mouths.
This past Saturday I was looking for a different subject and different location than my usual haunts so I headed to a suburban park southwest of Denver. There were a number of these beautiful birds there and because it is a pretty busy park, these guys are unusually tolerant of people giving some nice photo ops.