Avian Competition for Fish Carrion

At 9 AM August 12, 2018 at Bob Wentz Windy Point Park, Vincent O'Brien and I watched a Great-blue Heron (GBHE), Common Raven (CORA) and Turkey Vulture (TUVU), compete over a dead fish. Upon first arriving we saw 2 TUVU's and a GBHE vying for a large dead fish on the shoreline of Lake Travis. Soon this group was joined by a CORA.
It appeared the Great-blue Heron was lowest on the totem pole, however, we did see the heron take a couple of bites of carrion during 20 minutes observation. We saw quite a bit of sparring between the CORA and TUVU. Because there were 2 TUVU's at that time they appeared to hold their ground and remain closest to dead fish. The closer TUVU was observed eating the carrion but most of the time little feeding was actually observed among the 3 different species.

Julkaistu elokuu 13, 2018 10:59 IP. käyttäjältä sawwhet