Tweets and all:

not to muddy the discussion but:
Ictalurus, the channel cat, has a forked tail.
The black bullhead shown in the photo, Ameiurus melas, has a square tail.
The brown bullhead, Ameiurus nebulosus, also has a square tail,
but is chocolate brown with cloud like markings on its flanks, hence the name "nebulosus."

Unless the taxonomy has recently changed, they are all classified in the Family Ictaluridae,
with the channel cat being in the Genus Ictalurus and the bullhead being in the Genus Ameiurus.

Whether brown or black bullhead, they are in so many of the lakes here,
its good to see predators such as the heron dining on them! Chow down heron!

Susan

susan anderegg at hotmail dot com

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:57:04 -0700
From: "Kelly McAllister" <mcallisters4 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Green Heron eating...what?
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <13692E4DF531432FBAD2A8F06121303B at Kelly>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Yes, genus Ictalurus, brown bullhead, most likely.
----- Original Message -----
From: notcalm at comcast.net
To: Marc Hoffman
Cc: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Green Heron eating...what?


Great photo, Marc. It appears to be a young catfish.


Dan Reiff
Mercer Island


----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Hoffman" <tweeters at dartfrogmedia.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:18:40 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: [Tweeters] Green Heron eating...what?

At the Arboretum yesterday, a Green Heron was doing a very nice job plucking small, dark fish from just below the surface. Can anyone identify the fish species from the photo here? Thanks!

http://dartfrogmedia.com/birds/arboretum/090721_IMG_9402.jpg
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