Monday, December 2, 2013

Mallard pair scavenging dead salmon

I walked around Erindale and Riverwood parks in Mississauga for a few hours today, finding a few notable birds for winter (Swamp and White-throated Sparrow, 5 Winter Wren, 2 Great Blue Heron). At one point as I walked along the riverside, I noticed a pair of Mallards showing some serious interest in a salmon carcass (I believe it's a Chinook Salmon, but a number of other salmon and trout are present in the river). Check out the video I took of this bizarre behavior:


Scavenging dead salmon seems to be pretty regular on the Pacific Coast of North America (e.g. here, which is the classic location for major salmon runs, but I haven't found any references to this behavior elsewhere.

For another fun story about mallards, check out this article.

3 comments:

  1. I have seen Mallards doing this annually in the 80s and 90s on the Credit River

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, that doesn't really surprise me. I'm sure the reason this behavior seems largely recognized away from the Pacific is the relative lack of prominence of salmon runs.

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  2. Great video. Thank you so much for sharing. Greetings from Montreal.

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