Video: Heron Catches and Swallows Gopher

A moment that I captured the other day in San Francisco:

That’s BADASS!




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That was pretty cool. Never imagine they would eat one.

That's pretty cool. They love field mice. They will flock to pastures that are being flood irrigated by ranchers to gobble up mice that are trying to escape the water. When I lived in Siskiyou County you would see tons of herons and seagulls going from pasture to pasture as they irrigated gorging themselves on the vermin.

Yeah, they're impressive predators. I'm pretty sure they bring the gophers back to their nest for their chicks.

Great footage...reminds me how a halibut strikes the bait then turns it around to swallow it head first, I don't know...just what I've heard...

I've seen this in person as well, thought WTF!  Except it was a ground squirrel and the bird drowned it in the water first.  super weird, gross, and enthralling all @ once.

@ around 37 secs, its like hte birds eyes bug out and he's thinking wtf did i get myself into

Wow great to watch. Been trying to get the Redtail hawks in bag yard on video catching alligator lizards.

Very cool!!!
Thank you for sharing this

I love how the heron seems so patient turning it around to get it in the right orientation. Brutal and calming at the same time. Thanks!

I enjoyed every second. 

Am currently building an owl box but maybe I should look into a heron box!

I really hate gophers.

I need one for my backyard to get rid of Gophers!

poor gopher,what if that was a she and she had young one.

This heron is there every day. Today he caught three in 2 hours and I got some pretty intense footage of full impalements and bloody beaks. Not sure what I'm ultimately going to do with this, but it's a lot of fun sitting in a field and watching this guy.