Chinese Pond Heron washing food before eating
Posted by BESG on 19 December 08, Friday
Contributed by Foo Sai Khoon
“I spent Deevapali with some Malaysian friends at Sungei Balang and Parit Jawa in Malaysia. In Sungei Balang, we came across Chinese Pond Herons (Ardeola bacchus) on many occasions but they flew off each time the car engine was switched off. But this one was looking for food and was oblivious of our presence. What is interesting is that it gave us an insight into its feeding habit. It washed its food (or wet its food) before eating it.”
The above images show the heron locating the prey while the images below show the bird bringing it to the water edge and dipping it in the water.
An earlier post shows an injured Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) catching a catfish in the water and taking it to land to bash it. It then returned to the water to wash the fish before eating it.
Images by Foo Sai Khoon.
This post is a cooperative effort between www.naturepixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.
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Categories: Feeding strategy, Feeding-plants
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Made Friday, 19 of March , 2010 at 8:45 am
[...] and is filed under Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. …Bird Ecology Study Group Chinese Pond Heron washing food …In Sungei Balang, we came across Chinese Pond Herons (Ardeola bacchus) on many occasions but they [...]
