When living in Denver, a frequent visit was to the Botanic Gardens. On one of those visits I was passing through the Japanese Gardens when I noted a Black-Crowned Night Heron had caught a koi from the pond.
In a series of photos I was able to document the heron dining on koi. Eating a fish whole that is one third the heron's body length takes some skill. After several attempts of tossing the fish in the air to allow it to go head first into the bird's beak, it finally was positioned correctly into the open beak. The swallowing began. Slowly the fish disappeared into the bird and soon the heron could close its beak once again.
After that swallowing accomplishment, I heard the heron exclaim, "Can't believe I ate the whole thing."
Ha! Was the heron able to fly off?
ReplyDeleteI also wanted to see that lift off, but I bored of waiting for the heron to take flight.
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