Reader Pete Moulton came through with some new photographs and their description:
Well, Professor Ceiling Cat, if you got bupkes, maybe a couple of recent photos will help fill the time and space. These two guys are my all-time favorite photo subjects: first a Green Heron, Butorides virescen, who has brought a Green Sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus, to breakfast (yes, the heron swallowed that fish with no perceptible difficulty), and second a Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, shaking off some excess water.
The pie-billed grebe, an expert diver. This is about the cutest water bird I’ve ever seen. Look at that little beak!
Wow. He ate that thing whole?
He sure did. Wasn’t even very difficult for him. Unfortunately, most of that action took place in the broken shade and the quality of the pix is uneven. Reminded me of watching snakes eat large meals.
Very nice photos.
BTW, I neglected to say how much I liked that Woodcock video in another thread.
Thank you, Stephen!
Beautiful heron shot, the fish looks more colourful than the bird!
Nice action on the grebe, they are such busy little birds and I always enjoy watching them too.
I’m pleased you like ’em, Taskin. IMO, both the Green Heron and the Pied-billed Grebe are just as entertaining as any Greater Roadrunner, but they’re a lot easier to find and photograph.
That little bill on the grebe is indeed cute, but having volunteered in waterbird rehab/rescue for several years, I can attest to the fact that it can also give a formidable pinch! Those little guys can really leave a mark if they got hold of you. Strong, stocky birds, they are in some ways more difficult to handle than the larger Clark’s and Western grebes.
Nice pics, of course!
Thank you, Aaron. Yes, I’ve been nipped a few times myself, and they’re good at it. They may look cute, but they’re tough little guys. The pair that live on this pond are most definitely the bosses of all the other birds.
I wonder how birds can swallow large objects like that. The mechanisms for mega-gulps in snakes is well studied, of course. They have kinetic skulls that stretch apart, and the parts ‘walk’ separately over the meal. But I know nothing about how birds do it.
Mobile quadrate bones separating the cranium and mandible (streptostyly) as in lizards and snakes; narrow, often flexible mandibular rami (despite fused symphysis at the chin, which is the opposite of snakes); fish-eating species usually with backward-pointing spines or pseudoteeth on the bill and tongue; kinesis between the braincase and upper bill at or in front of the orbits (sliding or hinge joint between bones, or just flexible bones); and ‘inertial feeding’ (also used by varanid lizards, crocs, dolphins etc.) where food items are tossed backwards down the throat by releasing grip at the right moment. Nifty!