Quite The Appetite

[Julie Kenward]

I found a link on the Internet this morning that shows a Great Blue Heron eating a rabbit. (Yes, you read that right!) Here's where you can find the story and images:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/29/eaheron129.xml

(It is a little bit graphic but not nearly as bad as it could have been with a raptor-type bird.)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I remember seeing an image of this behavior, I was quite surprised.

[Dan Brown]

Wow! some story! BTW, the story is about a Grey Heron, a Euro species. According to my field guides, the Grey Heron is 14 inches longer (bill to tail) than our Great Blue Heron, but still, quite an impressive story.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Grey herons can be quite intimidating. Still this is quite a stunt! What strikes me as odd is the color of the rabit. The rabbit, doesn't look like a wild animal. It's not your typical Dutch native rabbit. Quite a bit smaller, a completely different color, has a weird fluffy fur and is way too fat. The wild rabbits here are a kind of brownish grey (see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wild_konijn.JPG), while this one looks almost black. I suspect that it is an escaped pet, which may explain why it was so easily caught by the heron.
How did you find this, Julie?

- Jerry -

[Julie Kenward]

Jerry, the story was a link on a daily blog I read called "Bag of Nothing (http://www.bagofnothing.com/)." He finds the weirdest stuff!

[Linda Dulak]

Julie: I've been surprised at the stuff a heron will eat. About a year ago a deer died in the marsh in front of our house, probably wounded by hunters. I would normally expect the numerous vultures to clean up, but it was very attractive to the herons and it attracted a lot of herons for several days. Eventually the vultures found it and finished up.

We've also had eagles eating their catch near the shore. The herons come along and watch carefully and when the eagles leave the herons will clean up. They really do a lot of scavenging, something most people don't realize.

But catching a rabbit?? Haven't seen that yet.

Linda

[John Chardine]

I watched a Great Black-backed Gull swallow a whole puffin once but I think this one takes the cake Jules!

Herons cause huge disturbance when then fly over waterbird (e.g., tern/gull) colonies and I think the birds are telling us something. Herons are voracious eaters of almost anything. Night Herons are really important predators in seabird colonies but I had no idea until now that the larger herons share similar eclectic tastes in food.