Blue Heron catches and eats Gopher

I finally figured out why there aren't a lot of gophers at my apartment complex.
(Edit. It's a vole, not a gopher)

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

The sound of the bird singing in the background is very beautiful! Gives an immersive feeling like this is placed in prehistoric time and the heron is a dinosaur hunting!

[@AllHailNannerpuss]

The car alarm bird at 1:29 ruins the immersion though.

[@salvadoran_uwu]

@@AllHailNannerpuss LOL Wat a komment! 😂

[@ilovejdninja]

I liked the construction sounds

[@ReapingTheHarvest]

All animals were created on the same day.

[@acedegenerate2254]

​@@ReapingTheHarvestI've only read one book my entire like guy

[@lsswappedcessna]

It's funny how they move so deliberately, carefully, as if they're trying to remain balanced while standing in a river and not alert fish, even while on land.

[@baymax6894]

We can learn a lot from nature

[@GoldFalcon027]

If I had to guess, I'd say it moves like that on land so as to minimize vibrations on the ground so as to not alert the gopher.

[@patrickmcleod111]

@@GoldFalcon027 Yeah, in other words, it's doing the same thing on land as it would do in a body of water, and for the same reasons, because land dwelling animals don't care to be caught and eaten alive any less than aquatic animals do! Lol

[@sweetbarry]

I like the way he starts stepping backwards and looking around for possible witnesses he going to have to kill.

[@brittneynicole7765]

😁

[@patrickmcleod111]

He must not have noticed the "witness" who was filming the whole damn event! Or maybe he just inherently knew that the guy wasn't going to upload the video to 'Animal KZbin', where it would've been seen by the bird's peers. So he had nothing to worry about, because animals don't watch Human KZbin! That sounded funnier in my mind than it looks after being typed out. Oh well, too lazy to delete it....

[@Martin-zr2tb]

😂😂

[@wan7ucxOqSUBryTgfpBr7777]

in the era of CCTV and smartphone, that is a really bad move 😁

[@jeffghant4760]

He didn't want to lose his "stealth kill" bonus.

[@dillonalexander6689]

I love how it engages stealth mode. Those things eat everything,

[@syncmonism]

Yeah, they remind me of Pelicans.

[@sumoninja141]

Crazy how it puts it down to stab it with its beak

[@jeffjensen8]

It is rather brutal! People tend to have this idea that nature and wildlife are pure and beautiful, and don't often think of the genocides being committed (or, at least attempted) on a daily basis among animals. Or, that many of them are full of sickness and disease, and ticks and fleas (accidental rhyme - I've got 'the street' in my blood).

[@SephirothWaifu]

Better then eating it alive. Saw some types of goose hawks doing it. Hated the whole thing this was a humane kill!

[@morganrobinson8042]

It probably didn't want to deal with scratches as it swallowed.

[@SexyFace]

@@jeffjensen8 doesnt seem impure to me

[@jeffjensen8]

@@SexyFace I wasn't claiming it was impure. I was stating that people think it's this harmonious, clean and beautiful thing, when in reality it's death, starvation and disease. Sorry to suggest what you should do, but perhaps you should spend a little more time trying to understand someone before commenting like that.

[@sassulusmagnus]

I live next to a lake. When a blue heron shows up, the chipmunks all go nuts with their alert calls. I never realized what voracious predators blue herons are. I figured they just ate frogs and minnows. They will eat any animal they can swallow.

[@W.D_Gaster625]

Pelican is the same, if it can eat it, it will

[@leo2saints]

can't say i'm sad to see this. broke my ankle stepping into a gopher hole once.

[@jamesvickers9476]

Should have watched were you were walking...ijs

[@leo2saints]

@@jamesvickers9476 in my own yard? besides, those guys are MEAN! the gopher i mean

[@robertgrays8790]

Now the gopher goes down a hole

[@natedagreat19]

Your ankle is still screwed, cause the gopher hole still gonna be there lol.

[@imapigeonyoupeasant1489]

hahaha

[@ivansalazar5448]

These birds truly have keen senses of eye sight and hearing! Amazing!

[@Bertoboy41]

The way it stalks the gopher at first was almost feline, catlike!

[@johnpublic6673]

Watching this, it feels like we were naïve to have taken so long to come to the conclusion that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs.

[@alexojideagu]

Yes some people still don't believe it or are shocked when you tell them

[@kopestetiq9469]

Dinosaurs are a hoax

[@legacyxxx5691]

Your birth is a hoax as well.

[@bkjeong4302]

Birds ARE dinosaurs.

[@mjsmcd]

God is cruel

[@roberthill1586]

Love these. Had one fly low over our barge boat near london. Incredible graceful creatures. Whisper quiet in flight.

[@TheCoolProfessor]

A blue heron eating a gopher? I find that hard to swallow!

[@paulnokio1199]

Lololololol, well said

[@rockincoffee]

Because that’s not a gopher. Idiot doesn’t know difference of a gopher and a mole

[@bolee3339]

Looked like a woodchuck because of the stripes on its backs

[@patrickmcleod111]

@@rockincoffee No way man, that's an adult beaver or capybara right there! It's much too small to be a mole... 😂

[@andreashoppe1969]

@Peg Leg or beer

[@ibmingus]

1’30” mockingbird imitates car alarm.

[@tommypetraglia4688]

1:30 - fixed that timestamp for you These mimic birds learn the common sounds in their environment. There's a lyrebird in a zoo in South Australia which now makes the sounds of the construction equipment and tools used to build a new exhibit nearby including a chainsaw and the back up beep-beep of a truck kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZa0m56Hpcp9rbs

[@fockwulf1]

someone correct me if im wrong. but if we're watching a blue heron, then the bird mimicking in the background is probably a starling or a cat bird

[@mattzx003]

@@fockwulf1 You are wrong, and I am correcting you. It's a Northern Mockingbird; starlings and catbirds are both mimics, but their songs are less repetitive. Gray Catbird notes vary in pitch and are interspersed with meows; European Starlings have a standard song that they use between renditions of other bird calls, which are repeated just a couple of times. In my experience, starlings are the best mimics of other birds, while catbirds only mimic sporadically. Mockingbirds are more likely to include non-bird sounds (like car alarms). The ranges of all 3 species overlap with Great Blue Heron over most of the lower 48 states.

[@bluemountaindrivepae]

Be very very quiet, I'm hunting gophers.

[@xKalphax]

You forgot the infamous "hahahahaha" at the end

[@princeharming8963]

Ha ha.. gold!

[@Grimm_Lord95]

*vewy

[@ericplaysbass]

...vewy, vewy qwiet...

[@catyear75]

They could have used that Heron in "Caddyshack"

[@littleturtle1610]

His eyes was not cross enough to get the part.

[@jacobanderson2536]

Bill Murray's spirit animal.

[@DeathbyPixels]

“Feathered dinosaurs aren’t sca-“

[@shiftyshamsk]

Imagine it, 20ft tall and weighing 250 kilos, with teeth and with the capability to run 40mph...

[@trvth1s]

what species are you describing? truly sounds scary! With teeth? Must be a nonavian theropoda but 250 kilos??? trex was 20 ft tall but far heavier and def could not run that fast. Only phenomenal athlete species that comes to mind with those numbers is carnotaurus but it ran a little slower then that, was also half the height you mentioned and weighed a lot more then 250kilos

[@MybeautifulandamazingPrincess]

that sharp beak is scarier than teeth imo, just look at the damage it does to those poor bastards, most of the gophers are impaled and die on the spot

[@moxigen]

probably hinted at phorusrhacidae known as terror bird. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae

[@Antyoksydantka85]

@@moxigen but they didn't have teeth xd

[@moxigen]

oh right... i missed that one.

[@Marcfj]

That Heron's stilt like legs and the way he is walking reminds me of those Martian tripods in that sci-fi movie "War of the Worlds" with Tom Cruise.

[@GillAgainsIsland12]

As Capt. Quint said in Jaws, "A little shakin, a little tenderizin, and down ya go."

[@azinegg]

😂

[@Hakucho64]

Ah, is that where that quote comes from!

[@bobwallacejnr6852]

Please Mr internet, can i have my life back please..it's late and I'm in work in the morning.

[@stanpatterson5033]

It's a real-life version of Snack-A-Mole :)

[@southernbrew4252]

The heron has a built-in switch blade.

[@Howlingburd19]

Southern Brew yup, it’s beak is like a fishing spear! Herons are very good at catching and (as you can see in the video) “stabbing” struggling prey. They are outstanding predators!

[@mattjindrak]

When Heron said he didn't want his gopher well ya knew he was a no-good kiiiid

[@vsberlina3712]

Heron: Ima gonna stab ya. Gopher: Gopher it

[@JCTiggs1]

Terrible way to go. On a side note, that Blue Heron is magnificently majestic!

[@rfdodson109]

2:03 "have a good day.. PYSCHE!"

[@paulnokio1199]

These things are amazing to watch. Out standing predators

[@hrissan]

Paul nokio basically a small T-rex

[@tenrec]

Wow, I didn't know these things hunted away from the water.

[@judysocal8682]

At my community garden I have seen an egret do this-fascinating to watch them stalk up to the hole and stake it out. I have also seen a crow knock a gopher out of his burrow and then come back around and try to eat it and then have to fly off with his prey because the other crows were ganging up on him. Definitely the non-Disney side of nature.

[@TheRickWolf]

great epi! I saw this happen in Golden Gate Park, too late to get camera out, so I know this is great work. Clear, stable, done very well I feel. what's great also is the way they hold it in the throat for awhile, till it's dead maybe.

[@stewartgoodwin9488]

Thus bird uses the technique of incredible swagger in order to make a kill.

[@kennethconklin4140]

That Heron went to stealth mode. 🎶 I'm picking up good vibrations.🎶

[@davida.p.9911]

I need this bird in my yard. Gopher holes everywhere.

[@James-bv4nu]

Looks like it can hear the gopher underground. It listens, gets closer, and strikes.

[@emptank]

Herons like: "This is a weirdly solid swamp with its fury fish."

[@TheLudeness]

I think it was a Vole, cool video btw it neat how graceful the Haron's foot steps are.

[@pierrecurie]

I think voles are a lot smaller

[@steveb.9193]

Mole

[@randyhofer2523]

It's a pocket gopher

[@gmaddocks]

@@pierrecurie , exactly, Voles are much smaller.

[@bestamerica]

' very good heron bird... bring many heron birds to the farmers and hunts many mouses / rats / rodents... also citys and parks

[@edwardschmitt5710]

I like how stealthy it's steps are.

[@KellyBurnett138]

How graceful the stalking of the prey was... Wow!

[@silverwurm]

Fun Fact: The Azhdarchids Pterasaurs (think Quetzalcoatlus) are theorized to have hunted like this. Same long neck, same long sharp beak, just with skin covered wings that fold up so the hunter walks on all fours, and is as tall as a giraffe while doing so. And much larger prey.

[@kentexican5844]

Wicked-cool! I would have never guessed they would have simply swallowed the little buggers whole. Nice catch with the video! Thanks.

[@Gloopular]

I like how he checks to see if the coast is clear afterwards.

[@Sandy_Rosenthal]

Beautiful and fierce.

[@andyhernandez4019]

Blue heron thinking: Wait a minute where's the diping sauce 😣

[@Birdwow63]

Beautiful bird...

[@jacobanderson2536]

Caddyshack alternative ending.

[@SKKEarth]

Amazing video friend.Nice footage.Thanks for sharing this.

[@aspopulvera9130]

the heron was like "stab stab stab" and gulps the gopher like it was a tender juicy meat bags

[@sergiosolano3065]

You rock, dude. Great you got it all on vid.

[@thehurricane218]

"Check me if I'm wrong sandy, but if I kill all the golfers they are going to lock me up and throw away the key"

[@ToToWildlife]

Wow! It’s big. Impressive dinner 😋 great filming

[@kellyg8717]

Nothing like tendering it up bit with the old beak before eating it. Herons like, hey buddy can you put the camera down for a sec and pass me the HP sauce.

[@Vivi-hz7zu]

This bird is awesome! They must have a super stomach:)

[@thetwistedsamurai]

I'm sorry but it's fucking horrifying to think of what the gopher is going through in there. He's ALIVE STILL.

[@ironphoenix5145]

There are a lot of these birds in Florida. Whenever I see one creeping along slowly like this one was at the beginning of the video I have to stop and watch what happens next.

[@bartthatcher5799]

Oh yeah!! They do that out here on the Central coast of California. Gophers, Ground squirrels and various other small wildlife.

[@JohnnyJohn116]

That Mockingbird is out of control

[@mynotaryjourney9753]

Excellent camera work 👏🏽👏🏽

[@CSLFiero]

Skewered with great precision.

[@Howlingburd19]

It’s so cool how it uses it beak like a dagger O_o

[@kiritokirigaya1151]

That is a true ninja bird

[@spinosaurus2001]

Wow... the power of that beak!

[@toksisity]

I've always wanted to see one up close

[@superdawge808]

amazing footage

[@EarlLedden]

Really nice video capture.

[@birdingplanet]

Great Heron video 👍

[@spacekitt.n]

lets face it we'd all rather a heron have a tasty meal than allow a gopher to live

[@robinpetersson3081]

I see them eat lizards in my backyard. Wish they'd go for the f'ing gophers too, lol 😂

[@Vertoxxis]

Bird just prison shanked that gopher

[@garagespiders]

Yum!

[@nissanman5738]

Great filming

[@ahrin1409]

Birds are definitely the last of dinosaurs. They are actually more carnivorous than most predators.

[@texasrockshillcountry6574]

Never knew they ate gophers untill KZbin!

[@sanansa4567]

i know and I used to see them all the time on the golf course, but they were mostly going after small fish.

[@aleksandrazimpel8097]

What a badass carnivore, clean meal, zero waste lol

[@dmdiscretion7387]

Damn. That Heron is GANGSTA!

[@davidlanham99]

If you see one rodent, there are 20 or 40 more of them around. If you see a mouse in your house, it means there are dozens more.

[@kyoakland]

It's true I saw one mouse in my house caught it but I kept leaving traps out caught 7 more

[@DeathbyPixels]

Man, they really do actually spear their prey, I thought it was just a metaphor. Very interesting video!

[@user-ry9ly8ou2y]

DeathbyPixels ممن نتعرف

[@DeathbyPixels]

I, ah... can’t read that. I’m sorry. زياد سلامه زياد

[@Dan-nt2yb]

Masterful.

[@molybdenum5775]

Me at 2am making coffee

[@scuzzbecuzz]

Fascinating

[@thelightison8629]

Need to get me a flock of blue heron at my house

[@Krapvag]

damn I was hoping he was just gonna moonwalk right back out of there

[@philipchiu9835]

I need one of these in my backyard lol. I have a zillion gophers

[@40TuberYou]

That strut though.

[@coloradocharlie945]

I guess we don't need gopher traps no more

[@user-vw2zl6nc5l]

1:05 good work

[@scottperry8354]

"FREEZE GOPHER!!"

[@josenriqueha]

"...98...99...100. Ready or not here we go..."

[@freddykrueger6571]

how do they not shatter their beaks when they miss

[@edwardneuman6061]

Creepy how you can see it still moving in the heron's throat.

[@StevenTorrey]

The Blue Heron really doesn't spear the gopher; the beak is more like a pair of very fine and sharp tweezers. Spearing a gopher with the beak would most likely spell the death of the Heron, he would have no way to remove the gopher. Note how the gopher struggles; it is swallowed live.

[@Andy-df5fj]

It was struggling at first, then it stopped likely because it was dead after being repeatedly stabbed. The heron uses inertia to pull it off its beak and if for some reason that coudn't do it, I see no reason it wouldn't be able to use a foot for leverage to pull it off.

[@Andy-df5fj]

After seeing another video if a heron eating a rat, I have to say I think you are right about the heron not stabbing with its beak. It appears to choke out its prey and the apparent stabs are it just resetting for a better choke hold.

[@mr.originaloneniceguy]

I need about 6 of them birds around my house

[@princeharming8963]

Bless his heart... he didn't stand a chance.

[@jessereiter328]

What ever it was it was fat these things eat squirrels to imagine sneaking up on that rodent how hard its is with heavfoot falls.

[@lockecole3726]

Catches? More like spears the gopher.

[@Tmathh]

That was sick how he dropped it to get another shot in. Waits for him to get tried then nom nom

[@DadArmy1209]

Mfin killer by all means.No kidding around.Way to go,survivor!!

[@loveandparty4118]

It was moving its mouth near the end since the gopher moving in its throat was tickling it...

[@BirdsNatureTravel]

Looks like tiger, lion before hunting.. this kind of hunting not seen in birds.. thanks for sharing.. 👍 New friend 🤝🔔

[@raidanbolt4844]

I need that bird, looks more effective than a trap.

[@peterwharehoka9842]

Stealthy footsteps like a cat.