Herons are beautiful birds that look wonderful in nature documentaries, but not when they’re in your backyard fish pond. Most likely, they see your pond fish as an easy meal. Typically, they occur in the spring or early summer. Have you seen a progressive decrease in the amount of Koi and goldfish in your pond? If so, the culprit may be this pond pirate.
The season during which young herons plead for a nice morsel is spring. Do not display your Koi or goldfish on the specials board. Herons are able to consume large amounts of seafood every day. A heron may devour up to 1 pound of fish each day without difficulty. This is to three Koi that are seven inches long and cost approximately $70 apiece.
As the heron rests on a post or tree, it keeps its keen eyes peeled for any type of activity. A bouncing or flashing pond fish will almost certainly attract its attention at some point. As a creature of habitat that is also territorial, a heron will patrol its region and make a mental note of the locations where it may obtain an easy meal.
- If a heron has captured one of your pond’s fish, rest confident it will return in search of others.
- Create a barrier between your backyard fish pond and avian predators with pond netting.
- Ensure that the netting is taut, between 6 and 12 inches above the surface of the pond.
- This is one of the most effective methods for stopping herons from consuming your fish.
Remember what I said about herons being territorial birds? Since herons do not like to eat near other herons, a great blue heron animal decoy is a helpful, effective, and inexpensive gadget. However, there is a drawback to our heron deterrent: during mating season, your plastic heron may become a bird’s cupid! Furthermore, why not try marginal pond plants to prevent these feathery pests? Plant aquatic vegetation around the perimeter of your garden pond and create steep slopes.
- If the heron cannot gain access to the fish, it will rapidly learn to look elsewhere.
- If herons continue to frequent your pond, there may be helpful devices available.
- It is effective to produce noise and spray pressurized air at an intruder.
- Some even spit water whenever an animal approaches a sensor.
Hopefully, at least one of these methods will rescue the fish in your pond from becoming dinner! 
What do large blue herons consume?
– An error has occurred. Try viewing this video on YouTube, or if JavaScript is disabled in your browser, activate it. Although tiny fish make up the majority of the Great Blue Heron’s diet, they will not pass up the opportunity to consume a larger fish if it offers itself.
- As bizarre as it may sound, Great Blue Herons have occasionally choked to death after capturing and unsuccessfully attempting to swallow a fish that was too large for their gullets.
- We have a film, which you can view below, showing a Great Blue Heron consuming a very large alewife near the entrance to Pemaquid Harbor some years ago.
The fish was alive when it was eaten by the heron, and it was still alive and fluttering within the bird’s stomach. As shown in the video, the fish continued to battle for a considerable amount of time. Once, at a tiny pond in Chelsea, we were shocked to observe a Great Blue Heron attempting to tame and swallow a giant, obstinate American eel.
- Ultimately, the bird prevailed.
- We’ve heard of Great Blue Herons feeding on mice, voles, and other small animals in regions where these creatures are plentiful.
- In one research conducted in the western United States, it was determined that Great Blue Herons fed their nestlings more voles than anything else! Recent photographs depicted a Great Blue Heron carrying a dead chipmunk in its bill.
A wildlife enthusiast gave us photographs of a Great Blue Heron eating on baby muskrats; we have linked to his blog on this page. Even Great Blue Herons will capture and consume other birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World account contains photographs of a Great Blue Heron killing and consuming another member of the heron family, a Least Bittern.
It is shockingly large for a Great Blue Heron to have consumed a Least Bittern, but cannibalism shouldn’t be surprising at this point! Decades ago, we saw shorebirds at the renowned May’s Point Pool in the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge near the northern end of Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York. A Great Blue Heron was perched on a log in the swamp, and a flock of foraging Least Sandpipers around it.
After a lengthy period of standing seemingly inattentive to the sandpipers, the heron suddenly gazed down at them with great curiosity. It was as though the bird suddenly realized one of the other birds would make an appetizing dinner. The heron whacked one of the sandpipers in the back of the head with a lightning-fast jab.
The sandpiper probably never realized what hit it and perished in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, the heron spent the next twenty minutes attempting to swallow the sandpiper, but the sandpiper’s spread wings prevented it from doing so. The heron eventually gave up and flew away, and the sandpiper was likely consumed by another species or critters.
Heron vs Snake Leesburg FL April 2010.wmv – YouTube 337 Birdwells subscribers Heron vs Snake Leesburg FL April 2010.wmv Observe later Share Link Copy Online Shopping Tap to unsilence If playing does not immediately commence, consider restarting your device.
What does a great blue heron look like?
Food Sources – As carnivores, herons must consume meat in order to thrive. Long legs allow the Great Blue Heron to wade into the water in search of food. It has a large head with a pointed beak that it uses to pierce its meal before eating it in its whole! In addition to fish, they consume frogs, small mammals, birds, insects, crustaceans (such as crabs), reptiles (such as snakes), amphibians (such as toads), and aquatic invertebrates such as mollusks and shrimp.