A question about the Little Blue Heron (1 Viewer)

Chato · Jan 20, 2008

About two years ago I found myself taking pictures of a Little Blue Heron. He was fishing with "bait." He caught a very small minnow, appeared to scale it, and then went around dropping this minow into the water, and in turn would grab the larger fish attracted to the minnow.

I know that the Green Heron has been documented as using bait, but I've heard nothing about the Little Blue.

Has anyone else observed this behavior?

If anyone wants, I'll be happy to post some images (although, I'm new to the forum and haven't figured that out yet)

Dave

Fast_falkon · Jan 21, 2008

first of all, welcome

i would love to see some picture

i can't say i've seen or heard about this behaviour (since we don't have little blue herons here)

Chato · Jan 22, 2008

That would make it difficult

Fast_falkon said:
first of all, welcome
i would love to see some picture
i can't say i've seen or heard about this behaviour (since we don't have little blue herons here)

I will try to post some of the sequence which actually consists of twenty pictures - Not my best Lil Blue Heron shots, but they certainly show some of the details. Someone who saw the pictures and heard the story said this is probably "unique." I'm a little too old to simply go out and make that claim B

Dave

Fast_falkon · Jan 22, 2008

nice pics

maybe you can open a flickr page and post all 20 of them there, i would love to see them

Jim M. · Jan 22, 2008

Chato said:
I know that the Green Heron has been documented as using bait, but I've heard nothing about the Little Blue.

Thanks Dave for highlighting this interesting behavior which I was not previously aware of. According to "The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior ", this behavior has been observed in green, striated, and black-crowned night herons. The reported bait has included insects, flowers, seeds, twigs, bread, and popcorn. The Striated Heron is reported to break off twigs to create bait.

Your observation seems significant not only because of the species, but also the use of the fish, and perhaps even the preparation of the fish to make it more effective as bait. I find the use of the fish especially interesting because unlike most of the other types of bait reported, the fish itself constitutes part of the heron's normal diet. So it appears to be making a calculated judgment-- and demonstrating some surprising willpower! -- that it will get more fish by using this one as bait rather than eating it immediately. Birds are just full of surprises.

Jim

Chato · Jan 22, 2008

J. Moore said:
Thanks Dave for highlighting this interesting behavior which I was not previously aware of. According to "The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior ", this behavior has been observed in green, striated, and black-crowned night herons. The reported bait has included insects, flowers, seeds, twigs, bread, and popcorn. The Striated Heron is reported to break off twigs to create bait.

Your observation seems significant not only because of the species, but also the use of the fish, and perhaps even the preparation of the fish to make it more effective as bait. I find the use of the fish especially interesting because unlike most of the other types of bait reported, the fish itself constitutes part of the heron's normal diet. So it appears to be making a calculated judgment-- and demonstrating some surprising willpower! -- that it will get more fish by using this one as bait rather than eating it immediately. Birds are just full of surprises.

Jim

I've observed about thirty different individual Lil Blues, and this is the only one I've seen doing this. I didn't see him catch this fish, but the first photo shows him, in what appears to be the act of actually scaling the fish. The end of his beak may show this, although I have seen Lil Blues with white tips or "stains" on their beak before (were they also fishing?).

At any rate, whatever he was doing on shore, he then waded into this marine pond, and spent the next thirty minutes catching fish, until he finally spotted me. Normally they just walk down the pond back and forth, but this guy stayed, more or less in the same spot.

Is there a way to confirm whether this behavior is unique? Certainly unique in my experience.

Dave

hollis_f · Feb 23, 2009

Black-Crowned Night Heron using bait -video

Here's a news story about a heron using bread to catch fish.

A question about the Little Blue Heron (1 Viewer)

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