I seen Great Egrets eating fish, snakes, mouse/rats... but for me the first time I get to see them eating another bird. The Egret was very aggresive searching in the vegetation, at that point I was not sure what was the target, it took several minutes for the Egret to locate the chick, it flew few feet away and swallow the chick, after finishing the first one it came back for the second chick, again couple minutes searching on the vegetation until the prey was located... this picture tells the rest of the story.
It was a hard shot, shooting from a boarwalk, the bird landed on the "wrong" side of the light, I was also challenged by several photographers trying to get the best shot, one of which moved and blocked my view at the peak action.
This is a full frame shot, I have several with my short combo, but I kind of like this one.
I just have two questions: Have you taken the shot? Knowing the light condition and not the best head angle...
If you have taken the shot, Would you have delete the file?
Herons in general are quite the predators. I've heard of Black-crowned Night-Herons being found with 10s of tern chicks in their stomachs. An earlier post on BPN showed a Great Blue eat a bird. Here's another example from an egret. I remember working in a Ring-billed Gull colony for a couple years and seeing a Great Blue Heron fly over and cause complete panic in the birds.
I wouldn't hesitate to take the this type of shot, pulling off a few frames is better than none at all, even in unsuitable conditions. A great habitat shot!
Herons & Egrets seem to take on all comers. here one shot I grabbed of a Grey Heron in Zambia swallowing whole a Scrub Hare on it's fifth attempt!