Hi ya'all,

My contribution to these birds eating birds stories: Once with a tour
group at Potholes Reservoir we were watching an adult Black-crowned Night
Heron apparently dozing in full sun on a canal dike when a mother Mallard
led her dozen chicks over the dike to the water. As the last chick
passed along the night heron appeared to wake from a deep slumber, eyed
the chick for a moment, then nabbed it and swallowed it whole. Mother
was none the wiser, never looking back.

Gene Hunn (hunn at u.washington.edu)


On Tue, 16 Aug 1994, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> Bob, was that story about the gull swallowing the harlequin duck for real?
> Having seen what gulls can put down their throats, I almost can believe it,
> but a harlequin duck weighs about 600 grams, a big male gull only twice
> that. A rock dove would seem to be quite a mouthful, and it weighs only 300
> grams. A harlequin would be a gulletful a little beyond my previous
> imagination. I suppose the gull could swallow the duck because the latter
> is quite compressible, but wow! I'll never feel bad about overeating on
> thanksgiving again. Too bad these outrageous examples of natural history
> don't get published....
>
> Dennis Paulson
>
>
>