This is the story of this Babbler and how it hunted this Spider prey. I show the story in 4 photos. The entire sequence lasted about 10 minutes.
The Babbler spotted this Spider inside a curled up fig tree leaf on a large branch. It went to the right...then to the left and repeated this process a few times, but was unable to reach the spider.
What it did next was something I did not expect. It broke the leaf from the branch to be able to hold the leaf better on the ground and get to the spider.
The first photo shows the Babbler with the leaf and spider inside after it removed it from the Branch. Here also the Babbler tried to get to the spider first from the right then left. The spider kept moving across the barrel of the curled leaf. Unlucky again.
Now what it did amazed me. It started to flap its wings and make that sound they do when they fly...while standing it's ground by the leaf. The second photo shows it. I guess it did this to fool the spider that it flew away
The spider indeed got fooled. It came out...and the Babbler jumped on it and removed one of its leg. The third photo shows the Babbler with the removed spider leg
Finally got it...the fourth photo shows that. The Babbler did have a satisfying look on its face after eating the spider...or that is what I think the look was.
Now that was one fascinating experience I had in all my birding trips. We all think birds have limited intelligence...but this one experience blew me away.
Steepshot