The green heron from North America, using bread as bait to catch fish, mentioned in another blog post here, is not unique.
This is a video of another green heron using bread to catch fish.
And green herons are not the only heron species doing such things. And you don’t have to go to Africa to see a black heron doing its umbrella trick either.
Translated from Vogeldagboek.nl in the Netherlands:
Grey heron uses ants as bait
Marlene van Soest sent this remarkable message on a grey heron fishing with bait.
“Our garden with a pond is just outside the center of Leiden.
When disturbed the fish hide under a rock plateau.Sometimes we feed the fish. They then go to their hideaway first and will emerge later.
During the holidays there was a grey heron, with a special way of fishing, unfortunately a successful way.
With its bill, the bird grabbed some ants who were about to fly away and dropped them into the pond.
When a few fish wanted to eat that tidbit, they were eaten themselves … “
Marlene van Soest had to span a net over the pond to save the fish.
In an earlier Vogeldagboek Dr. J. T. Lumeij (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University), said, in response to a question by me, that it was not known whether bitterns used bait.
“Other herons do so though, like striated herons with pieces of bread or insects.
Herons use different techniques to catch prey.”
That turned out to be very true in Leiden!
