I’m not sure what I expected a great blue heron to snatch in this popular video circulating on social media, but it sure wasn’t THAT. Great blue herons are tall, slow-moving birds that typically spear fish as they stand quite still in bodies of water, waiting for a juicy meal to pass by. Sometimes, though, these birds go for a hunt on land, as this heron did when it found its unexpected prey.
[RELATED: WATCH: Heron Catches and Eats Snake That Ties Itself Into a Knot]
Nicole Granati captured the surprising footage and shared it with the Instagram account Nature Is Metal. Granati says she took the video in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Without further ado, watch a great blue heron grab an unexpected prey item:
Did You See That Coming?
If you didn’t think great blue herons ate gophers, you are not alone. However, these opportunistic carnivores will eat whatever they can catch, even though they prefer fish.
Nature Is Metal pointed out that although a heron’s hunting strategy on land is similar to its hunting strategy while wading in water, it must be a very different experience to actually consume a gopher versus a fish. But that’s another video for another time.
Header stock image by DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) via Getty