Slow glide to steep crashing dive. A fully documented Brown Pelican hunt. The most I could compress this to was nine images.

The sequential photographs here may be the most detailed I have caught to date. I almost missed publishing these as they got lost in volume taken that day.

Above is where it started, the bird slowly gliding over Tarpon Bay (Florida).

As soon as a school of fish was spotted the Pelican turned and began to line up the dive.

Once a fish/school was selected it took less than a second to hit the target.

Finally a pin point dive, hitting the water.

The impact is loud and violent.

The bird went under and quickly came up flying off.

The amazing thing is the Pelican will repeat this head first crash over and over until the fish are gone.

There is a trick here to lessen the blow. The Pelican will always twist, turn and angle his head to the right. You can see it here, and all the other articles published on this site.