I like to know what the birds I’m photographing are eating. Sometimes I can ID it and sometimes I can’t.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
On my last trip to Bear River MBR I had quite a few good opportunities with adult Black-crowned Night Herons while they were hunting and feeding. It’s funny, some trips up there provide me photos of only adults and other trips I photograph only juveniles. For me there’s rarely been a mix this year.
This guy was slow-motion hunting. As he was sneaking up on prey he’d spotted he was moving so slowly I could barely tell he was moving at all. I like this hunting pose with his intense concentration and his duckweed-covered raised foot.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
When he eventually (it took a very long time) got close to whatever it was, he really stretched his neck out. In this pose, which he held for quite a while, his head and neck are actually longer than the rest of his body.
I was curious to know how much longer so I used Photoshop to put a grid on the photo and measure both in grid squares. His head and neck are 21 grid squares long and the rest of his body is 18 grid squares long. That’s a lot of neck, especially since they usually look much more compact than this.
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
When he finally struck, he caught the prey but it was wrapped in a big gob of duckweed and stringy aquatic vegetation. It seemed like it took him forever to extract the prey item from the green slimy mess. I actually took 135 photos documenting the process but eventually…
1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
he had it cleaned up enough to swallow, even though there was still some ‘salad’ bits stuck to it.
I wanted to know what the prey was badly enough to look very closely at each of those 135 photos, many of them blown up to 100% and that took some time. But I just can’t tell, not for sure.
1/6400, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Later that morning I photographed this adult eating something… similar?
In some ways it looks like a dark crayfish but in other ways it doesn’t, so I still don’t know what the herons were eating that day. However, I was pleased with the unusually good look at this bird’s nictitating membrane in mid-blink.
Black-crowned Night Herons will eat about anything. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a longer and more varied grouping of food items listed by Cornell’s Birds of the World for any other species of bird.
“Opportunistic forager, taking a wide variety of foods including leeches, earthworms, aquatic and terrestrial insects, prawns and crayfish, clams, mussels, squid, freshwater and marine fish, amphibians, lizards, snakes, turtles, small mammals, birds, eggs, carrion, plant materials, and garbage/refuse from landfills.”
The original foodie.
Ron
Nice shots tho darned if I know what it was eating! Algae and duckweed can do weird things to critters…… 😉 The nictitating mebrane partially closed IS interesting.
That half open/half shut nictitating membrane is an amazing shot.
I am glad that my food group doesn’t contain that particular delicacy – or delicacies.
Still not getting any follow up comments. Hiss and spit.
Hi Ron,
I just returned from visiting Bear River MBR. Sorry I can’t help on what the birds are eating. My luck with the Night Herons was a bit different, There were Night Herons everywhere while I was there, including several juveniles. I turn in eBird lists and on the 19th I counted 24 total. The juveniles are so strikingly different in appearance I’m glad I got to see them. The odd thing for me is that while I usually see Great Egrets, this time there were many Snowy Egrets, but not a single Great Egret in 4 trips.
John, when you visit Bear River you never know what you will see and won’t see. On my last trip I only saw one Great Blue Heron, which was unusual.
When I looked up stages of crayfish development one stage looks a bit like the herons meal but they are the size of a large cicada. What the heron is eating looks larger than a cicada. Nice series, I hope you get some clue to what the food morsel is.
April, if it was larger than a cicada, I don’t think it was much larger.
Outstanding photos. Never saw one in action going after prey so the extended neck is something I have never seen. As you were describing what he might be going after my first thought was a frog. Has to be a frog. But interestingly Cornell does not even mention frogs? We have about a million frogs in our lakes and especially Bull Frogs. I am sure our Great Blue Herons and Great and Snowy Egrets catch plenty of them.
Thanks, Everett. I hardly ever see frogs at Bear River. I don’t know why and I wish they were there.
Interesting. Does look like a crawfish of some kind.
Amazingly broad spectrum of food items these birds have. No doubt this has contributed to the success of the Ardeidae.
Michael, I think you’re right about their success.
Marty’s right– that close-up of the nictitating membrane mid-action
is a real prize ! I’ve only ever seen one totally open or totally closed.
The brilliant scarlet of the heron’s eye is a perfect color foil for the
chartreuse green of the mysterious “delicacy”…….
Glad you appreciate that look at the membrane, Kris I’m pretty fond of it too.
The closeup of the nictitating membrane is most coolamatious, as is the “giraffe” shot. Herons are such fascinating birds!
I hope someone in your readership can ID the critter this one’s eating. They do look a little crawfish-like — maybe juveniles? In the first breakfast shot it looks like some vegetation was trying to fool me into thinking it was an extra-long leg.
Marty, if I had to guess I’d say the second one is a crayfish. But I don’t have to, so I won’t…