![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-necked-stilt-5546-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-necked-stilt-5546-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIf you’re a stilt, size matters.<\/p>\n
Four days ago I slowly drove to the top of a boat ramp next to a pond at Bear River MBR with the intent of photographing the Western Grebes that habitually hang out there. I actually got my pickup stopped at the top of the ramp and one of the grebes in my viewfinder before I realized that there was a male Black-necked stilt at the bottom of the ramp at the water’s edge. He was so close to me I could barely fit him in the frame.<\/p>\n
Even with me so close he didn’t fly off because he was preoccupied with something else.<\/p>\n
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He was trying to swallow a fish, a very large fish for a stilt, and he was having no luck at all.<\/p>\n
The diet of Black-necked Stilts consists primarily of aquatic invertebrates that are usually so small I can barely see them through my lens, even when I’m close. They’re known to eat the occasional fish but only very small ones and in all the years I’ve been photographing birds I’ve only documented a stilt eating a fish one other time (interestingly, avocets seem to eat fish more often.)<\/p>\n
I have no idea how long he’d been trying to swallow the fish before I arrived but I had the distinct impression that it had been a while. He was one determined bird.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-necked-stilt-5449-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-necked-stilt-5449-ron-dudley\\"")
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This closeup gives us a pretty good look at why the size of the fish was pushing the limits for a stilt. Their mouth opening, where the base of their highly specialized bill meets their head, is very small, both horizontally and vertically. Anything they eat has to pass through that small opening and this fish was right at the limit of what was possible for a stilt.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/black-necked-stilt-5563-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-necked-stilt-5563-ron-dudley\\"")
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Time after time he got the fish this close to being swallowed and then had to give up and start over again. I spent nearly three minutes with him and took 229 photos before he eventually succeeded in swallowing the fish, with his back to me of course.<\/p>\n
Each time he failed he would dip the fish back into the water before trying again. That’s a behavior I often see with fish-eating birds, grebes for example, and it’s my half-baked theory that they do it to wet the fish and make it more slippery again so it’s easier to swallow.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/black-necked-stilt-4266-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-necked-stilt-4266-ron-dudley\\"")
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Prior to four days ago, this is the only stilt I’d ever documented eating a fish and that was back in 2015. On those unusual occasions when stilts eat fish, this tiny one is more typical of the size they consume.<\/p>\n
And that’s why the size of this latest fish got my attention.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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If you’re a stilt, size matters. (4 photos)<\/p>\n