Like all Herons, Black-crowned Herons use the same fishing techniques.
They stand still in shallow water for a long time, waiting for fish to approach and then throw their head and neck forward, like the Heron in the photo above, into the water to catch prey.
The Heron I photographed recently during fishing seems to have caught a crayfish. Apparently, crayfish is popular on the heron menu.
The Heron also have pulled silt out of the water. I was sure that it would swallow it along with a prey, but I was mistaken.
The Herons swallow fish whole. They are using their forward-facing eyes to determine which end of the fish is the head and which is the tail. They also swallow the fish head first, so that the fish slide smoothly down their throats.
Fish is swalled but silt left outside.
Black-crowned Herons tend to hunt on their own and usually during night or early morning.
But during the day they will nest together in the colonies. I read that colonies have up to twelve nests in the single tree but I have never seen them.
Life goes on.
