After spending a lot of time this winter watching birds, I learned that they have a wide variety of fishing styles, techniques, and skills. I thought that shorebird fishing consisted simply of a dive or beak stab, followed by a quick swallow. But no, bird fishing is a sophisticated and fascinating business.
For example, one evening at South Carolina’s Huntington Beach State Park, this brown pelican fished for about an hour off the causeway. He patiently harvested tiny fishes through the sieve method—lots of work for not much protein. 
First, he took aim and lunged.
Then he slowly, slowly pulled his head and bloated throat pouch up, engorged with water and minnows. It was a gradual process, with the water slowly seeping out his beak until his head was fully up. 
He held his head fully upright, beak down, while the remaining water dripped out his beak tip and then abruptly pulled his head back, with great bill chomping, and swallowed the little fishes.
After attracted a bevy of photographers, he flew off to fish elsewhere.
This egret was after larger prey. She suddenly went into a frenzy of wing flapping and stomping, all around the edge of marsh tidal pool.
Then she went in for the kill—a good-sized fish that she carried onto the mud bank. 
She dropped it and let it slither around in the mud for a bit before picking it up and awkwardly downing that sucker. 
