Feeling Blue: Two lessons about little blue herons

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it.

Two weeks ago at Estero Llano State Park in Weslaco, I stopped by Grebe Marsh, usually a nice place to see kiskadees, kingfishers, herons, egrets and grebes.

It was a good decision because I saw a spotted sandpiper, female vermillion flycatcher, phoebe, great egret, least grebes, kiskadees, green kingfisher and a little blue heron.

The kingfisher was having so-so success, but the little blue herons was batting zero. No fish, no dinner.

As the heron neared the branch where the kingfisher was hanging out, the heron suddenly made a threatening move, forcing the much smaller kingfisher to take flight to another part of the marsh.

The first time, I thought it was just happenstance. But as the kingfisher moved, the heron followed and each time made he kingfisher take flight.

There was no doubt about it, this little blue heron saw the kingfisher as competition and was determined to serve it with an eviction notice.

So goes the notion of mutual tolerance among birds, at least with this heron.

Little blue herons are year-round residents of the Rio Grande Valley and can be found in fresh and salt-water habitats, where they mainly feed on small fish.

I have also seen them scavenge. Several years ago following a massive fish kill caused by red tide, an algae that left thousands of dead fish on the Laguna Madre side of South Padre Island, I noticed a few birds that would eat the decaying mullet. The little blue heron was one of them. Other birds eating the dead fish were white ibises and even some moorhens.

Once again, it was a lesson about little blue herons. I did not know they would consume carcasses.

Although little blue herons appear to be declining because of loss of habitat, at least they didn’t suffer the massive depredation as other herons and egrets at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century when long-plumed birds were hunted because their feathers were prized as fashion accessories. Little blue heron plumes, though attractive, are not the long, showy feathers of birds such as the similar-sized snowy egret.