Great Blue Herons have been known to eat adult passerines (including
American Dippers) when they can catch them, and would definitely take
nestlings if given the chance. It's not their normal prey, but they
wouldn't pass up an easy opportunity should one present itself.

Thomas Knight
Seattle


On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Bert Bartleson <bartlesonfsc at comcast.net>wrote:

> Hi Tweets, This afternoon I observed an unusual interaction between a great
> blue heron and a male red winged blackbird. The heron flew in to the pond
> edge behind my house and almost immediately was dive bombed by the RWBL.
> The heron slowly retreated wading slowly away from the cattail area where
> the RWBL's are nesting. The RWBL kept after the heron for over 15 minutes
> and it retreated about 150 feet away from the cattails. Eventually the
> GBHE
> had had enough and flew away with the RWBL still harassing it as it flew
> out
> of sight. My question -- Do GBHE ever eat baby RWBL's or is the male RWBL
> just really being super territorial? I know that RWBL sometimes dive-bomb
> people near waste retention ponds where they nest here in Olympia. Bert
> Bartleson, Olympia, WA.
>
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