What began as a routine wildlife observation at the Jerusalem Bird Observatory turned into an extraordinary moment in nature when a kingfisher caught a fish that had just caught a worm.
Nature photographer Eldad Cohen Tzedek has photographed the white-throated kingfisher many times before. But this time, the encounter unfolded in a surprising way: the bird not only caught the fish but also ended up eating the worm the fish had been trying to swallow.
“White-throated kingfishers are known for their incredible eyesight and their ability to detect prey even from a distance,” Cohen Tzedek explained. “They usually sit on a high branch, quietly scanning the water, and at the right moment dive down with lightning speed.”
A hunter interrupted
At first, everything seemed ordinary. The kingfisher was perched on its familiar branch above the water, patiently watching the surface below.
But beneath the water, a small fish was in the middle of its own hunt. It had managed to grab an unusually large earthworm, almost as large as the fish itself, and was struggling to deal with the unexpected catch.
While the fish was busy wrestling with its prey, the real predator struck.
In a swift and precise dive, the kingfisher snatched the fish from the water and returned to its branch. Only then did the surprising scene unfold.
As the kingfisher began striking the fish against the branch to soften it before swallowing, the earthworm suddenly slipped out of the fish’s mouth.
“At that moment, while photographing the scene that lasted only a few seconds, I didn’t fully understand what I was seeing,” Cohen Tzedek recalled. “The kingfisher was shaking something on the branch, but I couldn’t tell whether it was a small snake or something else.”
Dessert after the meal
The story did not end there.
After shaking the worm free, the kingfisher swallowed the fish whole. It then immediately returned to the water, picked up the earthworm in its beak and swallowed that as well.
“Only when I looked at the images afterward did I understand what had actually happened before my eyes,” Cohen Tzedek said. “It was a rare moment where a hunter becomes prey, a perfect illustration of the food chain in nature.”
Eldad Cohen TzedekWith Passover approaching, Cohen Tzedek compared the moment to the famous Passover song “Chad Gadya,” which tells a chain of events in which one creature devours another.
“It’s a small reminder that in nature the hunter can quickly become the hunted,” he said. “The whole story can flip in a split second.”