A few weeks ago I had visited the wetland at Oropos where I encountered several water birds and to my surprise a Cetti's Warbler that had the courage to show itself to humans.
Cetti's Warbler / Cettia cetti /Ψευταηδόνι
Water pipit/Anthus spinoletta/Νεροκελάδα
This cormorant was very distant but nonetheless very interesting cause it had caught an eel which was resisting being eaten with all its might. It took the cormorant about 10 minutes to subdue it and eat it.
Cormorant /Phalacrocorax aristotelis /Κορμοράνος
Crested lark/Galerda cristata/Κατσουλιέρης
Reed bunting/ Emberiza schoeniclus/ Καλαμοτσίχλονο
Great egrets/Ardea alba/ Αργυροτσικνιάδες
Cool shots and nice blog! I initially noticed your "Cormorant vs Eel" shot. Wow that looks like a huge fish caught and staring down it's captor's throat here! So can the bird really manage to win the struggle and gulp that entire thing okay?? The Cormorant must have been hungry, if eaten, does the unlucky prey get swallowed wriggling/twisting all the way as well?!
ReplyDelete-Kyle
I think the cormorants eat their prey alive so I can imagine that the eel might even upset their stomach a bit.
DeleteIf you take a look there are several cormorant vs eel videos on youtube where one can see the struggle as well as a case where the cormorant was forced to regurgitate an eel.
Just stumbled across this interesting blog again! That must be some hungry bird! I looked some cormorants up online, they appear to catch some big potential meals!
ReplyDeleteStill, it seems difficult to me that the cormorant can deal with this particular eel! So the bird was actually able to fit (swallowed alive?!) that whole thing down its long/skinny throat completely somehow?? I have never witnessed an event like this before.
I feel somewhat perplexed over how it actually happens, wouldn't the eel stand a chance of escaping or even damaging (wriggling, biting, etc.) the bird's throat/stomach if eaten in that condition?!
It’s hard for me to imagine that the potential meal (wouldn't the prey also go into a desperate "survival mode" once it realized that it hit the stomach?) doesn't turn around inside the elastic gullet and how the bird can keep down/digest such an object with no issues? I recently heard eels produce a lot of slime that is used as a protective coating and makes them quite slippery!
I don't have much knowledge about these events and am mostly curious, I appreciate any feedback/explanation.
Sorry for all of the questions, have a good week ;)