Here we see a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) holding what I think is a Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) in a tributary of the Potomac. Close examination reveals that the heron has not bitten the fish, but rather has apparently speared it. The heron walked around with the fish like this for a few minutes, presumably waiting for it to die, then dropped it back into the water to eat it.
I have to wonder if there have been any scientific studies of this type of spearfishing by birds. (I imagine that there have been although I don’t know the scientific literature well enough to say.) I recall that it was was once proposed, and then dropped, as a potential feeding behavior for certain types of long-jawed pterosaurs (although I can’t find a link for this).
