Dove-eating Grey Heron spotted at Al Qudra Lake

Expert: Unusual behaviour for migratory bird

For the first time in the UAE, a Grey Heron has been spotted eating a Eurasian Collared Dove, which is one for the record books, says a prominent wildlife expert in Dubai.

While Grey Herons are known to satiate their enormous appetites by downing fish, small animals and the odd marine bird such as ducklings head first, their swallowing non-aquatic birds is a rare sight, according to Dr Mohammad Ali Reza Khan, principal wildlife specialist at Dubai Safari and Dubai Municipality.

Dr Khan said in his six years of birdwatching at the hugely popular Al Qudra Lake in the Al Marmoum Area of Bab Al Shams Desert, he has never seen such a sight. “It is a very unusual thing,” Dr Khan told Gulf News yesterday. “I’ve never seen this before in this country. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

The moment captured on film is important, he said, because it marks another aspect in the behaviour of the migrating Grey Heron while visiting the UAE and gives wildlife experts a wider view of the bird’s eating habits.

Fish and small prey

Grey Herons use their spear-like bills to strike fish and small prey along the shores of wetlands.

Dr Khan said, “Seeing Grey Herons eating crabs and frogs is very common” in other countries, but swallowing a dove whole is one for the record books in the UAE’s natural history digest. It demonstrates that the Grey Heron’s diet not only comprises fish which are common in Al Qudra Lake, after they were introduced there in recent years to feed migrating and permanent bird species in the desert oasis.

“I have almost always seen Grey Herons catching fish and eating them. There are records of Grey Herons eating ducklings and the young of other water birds, when they need to catch prey for more than 18 hours a day. At night, they catch any small animal they can find within their vicinity. But I’ve never seen a heron trying to catch or eat a dead dove.

“As far as I know, this is the first instance of a grey heron eating a dove in the UAE and possibly in the world,” he said.

Courtesy: Reza Khan The Grey Heron seen eating the dove at Al Qudra Lake yesterday. Dr Mohammad Ali Reza Khan said he has never seen such a sight in his six years of birdwatching.