Heron eating a duckling
Jun 28th, 2008 by Birdy Trish
It’s not all sweetness and light in birdworld
I’ve seen photographs of a Heron swooping down onto a duckling - trying to kill and eat it.
The mother duck skimms across the water in a vain, frantic and courageous effort to chase the heron away.
It is no contest. the Heron is a very large predator. The duck’s head would just about come up to the Heron’s chest.
The Heron caught the duckling and ate it in front of the mother duckling.
The heron has no compunction about killing this young Duckling. It cannot comprehend the agony it is causing the mother duck.
I suppose all birds are like this.
Even the sweet little robins that I put food out for and care for fight each other in territorial fights.
Crows eat blackbirds.
Magpies pinch eggs and young from nests in the quiet English hedgerows.
Bird killing bird must have been going on since birds evolved.
The heron is a meat eating bird. It’s the way it has evolved.
It’s not all sweetness and light. It’s not about bird caring for bird. Survival means everything.