I saw this unusual behaviour of a White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorynchus amydrus). As it commonly does, it hawks for insects from a perch, often man-made electrical wire or pole. This one had caught a large butterfly (ID uncertain) and brought it back to the wire to feed on.
Because I got out of the car to take some images it flew off and transferred the prey to foot. To my surprise it then proceeded to circle around and feed on the butterfly; very much like a raptor would do to eat on the wing (on the fly) due to ectoparasitism. Probably in this instance it felt I might steal its prey.
Amar-Singh HSS (Dato’ Dr)
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Location: Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Secondary growth adjacent to limestone outcroppings
Date: 10th December 2020
Equipment: Nikon D500 SLR with Nikon AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR, handheld with Rode VideoMic Pro Plus Shotgun Microphone
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