The Lava Heron

We were walking one night on San Cristobal in the Galapagos and we had seen so many sealions already and first of all we saw this egret-looking bird but that wasn't the striated heron...then we saw our destiny!  It was a dark coloured bird about 20 cm in height and with a long shiny beak.  

Don't photograph me with my mouth full PLEASE!

We decided to watch it's hunting skills for a while and just then he picked up a spider from nowhere...but then dropped it and the spider must have thought "yes, I'm free!"  Sadly he then said "ouch" and got grabbed again by the long, pointy beak.  On that day we saw him catch four insects in about 10 minutes.  Every evening he is in the same rich picking place and seems to have a very successful technique.

The one we saw was probably a female because the female is less colourful than the male.  It is also called the Little Heron.

The striated heron is very clever because he has a very interesting way of getting prey sometimes. He puts some food out on the water, like little insects, and then fish come to it and he strikes at the fish and catches it. 

By Frankie

Daddy writes:  Since Frankie wrote this, our friend Lee Dingain, a very keen birder, has explained that this is in fact a lava heron, endemic to the Galapagos, and it is part of the striated heron family.  Ironically we saw one the very next day eating this fish, so we thought we'd update the entry with the latest photograph and a short video of it swallowing the fish whole!)