Belize Treasures - Birds that Eat Fish

As I was browsing through my photos from our recent trip to Belize, I saw several photos of birds that are adapted to eating fish. No big deal, right? But doesn't this seem strange? Fish are masters of the water, birds are masters of the air. Two very different domains.

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised that birds can eat fish. After all, birds are diverse, and various bird species have adapted to specialize on eating just about every type of food you can imagine. Hummingbirds drink flower nectar. Robins eat worms. Bearded vultures are experts at eating bones. African honeyguides eat bee's wax. Amazonian Hoatzins eat only leaves. European honey buzzards specialize in eating Asian hornets. Sharp-beaked ground finches consume blood. Snail kites and limpkins (we've seen both of these in Belize) eat only snails. The list could go on and on.

Here are a few kinds of fish-eating birds we saw in Belize as we drifted along a river in a boat.

Kingfishers seem like they are too small to catch fish, but they are master anglers. They sit on perches above the water, and when they see small fish swimming near the surface, they swoop down to snag one with their specialized beak.

PHOTO ONE is a male green kingfisher. This small bird is only 7 inches from beak tip to tail tip, but that doesn't stop it from catching and swallowing surprisingly large fish.

Speaking of catching large fish, PHOTO TWO is a ringed kingfisher (more than twice the size of the green kingfisher). This dude (yes, it's a male too) was working hard to soften a catfish it caught so that it could swallow it. I watched for a while, but the bird was still working on the fish when our boat drifted beyond sight. I'll never know if it got the fish down its throat.

By the way, neither of these two kingfisher species make nests in trees. Instead, they dig burrows in the mud at the shore using their strong beaks. Then they lay their eggs on the bare mud at the back end of the burrow.

Let's consider a larger fish-eating bird. PHOTO THREE is a green heron. These birds don't hunt fish by flying down to scoop them up like kingfishers do. Instead, they creep along the edge of the water (like this one is doing), moving slowly and often holding very still. When they see a fish or frog, they shoot out their long beak and snatch the prey. They rarely wade in the water while hunting like larger herons do, I suppose because their legs aren't long enough.

Let's go up in size even more. PHOTO FOUR is a bare-throated tiger-heron. They stand about 30 inches (76cm) tall. These beautiful birds not only eat fish (they stand very still in the water and ambush their prey), but they eat almost anything else they can swallow, including frogs, crayfish, rodents, snakes, lizards, small birds, and even baby turtles and crocodiles (we saw at least eight baby crocodiles while drifting on this river). Tiger-herons are not the least bit picky.

By the way... tiger-herons have a really weird bellowing call, very different from the croaks of many other herons. Listen to the call here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gp6tOCyGxjc

Wait! Something else just occurred to me. Are there any fish that eat birds? I mean, why not? Actually, there are. Northern pike and largemouth bass are known to prey on young ducks and geese that happen to be swimming on the surface. But this is nothing compared to the giant trevally. This large ocean fish can analyze the flight trajectory of low-flying seabirds, and then leap completely out of the water to catch them mid-flight. And the silver arowana, a fish of the Amazon Basin, can leap two meters out of the water to snatch birds from overhanging limbs.

As it shoots skyward to grab a bird, I wonder if the fish is thinking, "It's payback time!"

Photos by Stan C. Smith