[Birdtalk] Great Blue Heron predation on Pied-billed Grebe

[L. D. Giddings]

The following was recently posted on the Florida list and may be of
interest to some of you.

Lu Giddings


Subject: [FLBIRDS] Great Blue Heron predation on Pied-billed Grebe.
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:53:00 -0500
From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan at EARTHLINK.NET>
To: FLORIDABIRDS-L at LISTS.UFL.EDU
This morning at Sampson Lake (west of Starke, Bradford Co.) Bob Carroll,

Becky Enneis, and I saw a Great Blue Heron carrying what appeared to be
a football in its bill. Seeing two legs projecting from one end of the
football, we realized that the heron was attempting to eat a Pied-billed

Grebe, whose head and neck were already in the heron's gullet. However,
perhaps because the grebe's weight prevented the heron from lifting it
above the horizontal, or perhaps because it was just too big to swallow
under any circumstances, the situation remained unresolved by the time
we left. The heron spent about 45 minutes pacing around, occasionally
appearing to put the grebe down and then pick it up again, but never got

more than the head and neck past its gape. I was surprised when Mike
Hoekstra reported a Great Blue eating a Least Bittern at Paynes Prairie
in July 1988, but according to Sibley a Least Bittern weighs only 80 g
compared to a Pied-billed Grebe's 450!

Rex Rowan
Gainesville