"It's Mine, Gimme that"...

...said the Great Blue Heron to the Great Egret

Great Blue Herons are wading birds. The way they are built and look makes it seem as if their diet would comprise mostly of aquatic prey. However, Great Blue Herons are opportunistic predators. They will eat anything within striking distance and they will also use theft as a method of gaining an easy meal. At El Rio, with the water drying up fish became more concentrated resulting in more competition for limited food. I saw the Great Blue Heron taking assertive strides towards the edge of the water. It ignored the small Snowy Egret, which was looking over its shoulder warily at the larger Heron.

Suddenly, the Great Blue Heron lunged at a Great Egret that had been standing on the shoreline.

Apparently, the Great Egret had captured a large Koi which the Great Blue wanted. The Egret dropped the fish and backed off quickly. The Great Blue no longer needed to charge the Egret. It stopped to grab the fish that the Egret had abandoned while the Egret continued to get out of the way.

This was a very easy meal.

The Great Blue Heron wasted no time downing the large meal while the Great Egret looked on helplessly. While both birds appear to be about the same size. A Great Blue Heron weighs about five pounds while a Great Egret may weigh just a bit over two pounds. When something twice your size rushes towards you aggressively, you know you won’t win that fight. You are going to drop the fish and get out of the way. That’s what the Great Egret did.

I assume that the Great Egret had already made sure that the fish was dead so the Great Blue Heron had no trouble swallowing it quickly even as it walked back into the water. It is the true definition of convenience food, a ready-to-eat meal.

Ho-hum. That Heron is just going about its business. I wonder what the Great Egret was thinking.

The next time those two birds were near each other the Great Egret ruffled its neck feathers. This could be either an aggressive behavior or a defensive behavior. It’s possible the Egret was trying to look tough but given the recent event, I think the Egret was just being defensive and was worried about the Great Blue Heron. The Great Blue Heron didn’t seem to care at all.

The Great Blue Heron was also being very aggressive towards another Great Blue Heron in the neighborhood. It very much was letting everyone know who the dominant bird was and whose territory this was. I’ll share that experience next.