Gourmandise, quand tu nous tiens !
Ardéidé de taille moyenne à qui il semble manquer le cou, le Héron bihoreau est plutôt un oiseau crépusculaire et nocturne.
Le voir pêcher en plein jour n’est pas courant … sauf lorsqu’il a une progéniture à nourrir et que les estomacs s’impatientent.
L’adulte est facile à identifier; son plumage noir, gris et blanc est unique.
Selon les proies disponibles, certains individus se spécialisent dans une catégorie, ici dans le Delta du Danube les grenouilles en l’occurrence.
Le Bihoreau passe classiquement sa journée perché à faible hauteur dans les saules des zones lacustres.
Et lorsque le jour s’éteint, le Corbeau de nuit reprend inlassablement sa quête alimentaire.
Le Héron bihoreau est une espèce migratrice.
La plupart des oiseaux passent l’hiver loin en Afrique.
Entre ailes et plumes 
Je suis très régulièrement tous tes articles Stephan ce qui me permet d’une part de’y trouver de très belles photos et d’autre part d’améliorer mes connaissances merci beaucoup et bravo pour toutes ces publications
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Dear Dr.Peten,
Your email really brightened up my otherwise not so good day.
I have a merle noir right now feeding on peanuts and chopped
fresh steak and cheese I put out early this morning. Lucky that
Miss Lizy (black) and Mr.Grey (Russian Blue, I thought before that
he is Chartreuse, but his eyes are green, so he is more likely a
Russian Blue) are too lazy to hunt. I get regularly every day visits
from Blue Jays, Crows (one just arrived), many small Black Tits
(mesange charbonneau ?). With my stupid camera and 70 mm lens
it is hopeless to photograph them, but I do it anyway. I can get 1 meter
close to the pigeons, so those I can take decent photos of. I have one
regular pigeon that survived with one badly injured foot more than
one year. He/she is not tame enough to catch, otherwise I would
take it to you to fix the leg. Sometimes a Starling (étorneau sansonnet)
is coming to eat here on its own, he should be in a big flock.
A Geai just came to eat cooked rice, but was chased away by a crow,
I noticed they hate each other. Sometimes a group of Jays chases away
a solitary crow.
THANK YOU FOR THE NIGHT HERON PHOTOS !
You wrote that this was taken in the Danube Delta, so I assume you
took these photos during your last trip to Romania.
It is easy to criticize these photos technically, till someone tries to catch
a night heron in daylight in mid-flight with a frog in its beak!
Plus the camera must have the right setting at that time.
The chances are very small, but you did it.
I found photos of my two Night Heron hand-colored engravings by
Prideaux John Selby (English) I used to have on my office wall for 30 years
in California. I tried to scan it into my computer but it is unrecognizable.
So I found it on Google Images, but my two were better colored and framed.
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=717&q=Night+Heron+by+Prideaux+John+Selby&oq=Night+Heron+by+Prideaux+John+Selby&gs_l=img.3…6928.34289.0.35385.34.14.0.20.20.0.124.1158.12j2.14.0….0…1ac.1.64.img..0.15.1147…0j0i10k1j0i5i10i30k1j0i8i10i30k1j0i10i30k1j0i10i24k1j0i24k1j0i5i30k1j0i8i30k1.xlN_4WMMFlQ#imgrc=8biDKAUa0pqkEM%3A
I must say that the Audubon engravings are looking more like the real
bird in your photos. I have never seen a Night Heron in real life.
Makes sense, they come out at night. All birds are my favorites, but Night
Herons are my special favorites. Also, they live in a watery environment,
with reeds on the lake or river banks with willow trees, I like the same
surroundings as they do. How nice that you remembered.
I just noticed the title « Corbeau of the night », I did not realize that Night Herons
are a kind of Corbeau. I will look it up. It just shows that I waste my time
on silly things like corrupt lawyers while you work on the important things.
I am pleased to report that Lizy and Mr.Grey are fat and elegant and content,
the few thing that are going well for me here. Missy the Norwegian (you fixed the
lesion on her tongue) may have a second home, because her stomach is full
when I pick her up from the top of the 2 meter high bird feeder, after she
was away 2-3 days. She just cried now from a distance, warning me to get
her fresh steak ready. So I tell people that I have 2 1/2 cats. Missy is the half.
This is her survival strategy, I can understand that she does not want to rely
entirely on me alone. You cannot quite trust any human, she knows that.
Have a real nice day!
John Kapusi
Avenue Armand Huysmans, 74
1050 Ixelles
Tel: 02 644 9886
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Coucou Stephan,
Jolies photos avec la malheureuse grenouille.
Bravo.
Mapa
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