Bottoms Up
by Rick Furmanek
Title
Bottoms Up
Artist
Rick Furmanek
Medium
Photograph - Fine Art Photography
Description
BOTTOMS UP by PHOTOGRAPHER RICK FURMANEK
I watched this Neotropic Cormorant for several hours as he would disappear under water and often return to the surface with a catch. While I came away with a lot of wonderful ... even comical ... images, I think I liked this one the best. Ref. 6217
You may view more of Rick's work @ http://rickfurmanekphotography.pixels.com
Uploaded
January 21st, 2014
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Comments (15)
Don Columbus
Congratulations, your work is Featured in "A Birding Group - Wings" I invite you to place it in the group's "2020-2021 Featured Image Archive" Discussion!! L
Jan Mulherin
Congratulations!! This stunning image has been selected to be featured for the week in the “Art Forever with You – Creative and Unique Outdoor Images” Group Home Page. You are welcome to add a preview of this featured image to the group’s discussion post titled “2021 June: Stunning Group Featured Images and Thank-you’s” for a permanent display within the group, to share this achievement with others. Also feel free to post your feature on our group Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/296998814248643/ Thank you for your participation in the group! ~Jan (June 28, 2021)
Gary F Richards
Outstanding capture, lighting, shading, color and artwork! F/L … voted this one in the RIGHT PLACE RIGHT TIME Contest!
Kyle Dig
Just stumbled across this interesting capture again! That must be some hungry bird! Still, it seems difficult to me that the bird can deal with this large fish! So the bird was actually able to fit (swallowed alive?!) that whole thing down its long/skinny throat completely somehow?? I have never witnessed an event like this before. I feel somewhat perplexed over how it actually happens, wouldn't the fish stand a chance of escaping or even damaging (it’s sharp fins, wriggling, biting, etc.) the bird's throat/stomach if eaten in that condition?! It’s hard for me to imagine that the formidable-looking fish (wouldn't the prey also go into a desperate "survival mode" once it realized that it hit the stomach?) doesn't turn around inside the elastic gullet and how the bird can keep down/digest such an object with no issues? I don't have much knowledge about these events and am mostly curious, I appreciate any feedback/explanation. Sorry for all of the questions, have a good week ;)
Rick Furmanek replied:
Kyle, Thanks for your inquiry. This is not the biggest fish I've seen cormorants eat. They swallow it very quickly. Have not heard of one running into trouble once swallowed. You would think there would be some danger with something this large in your stomach, but they seem to do it with ease. Happy New Year!
Kyle Dig
Amazing capture! That looks like a big fish (do you know what kind?) staring down its captor's throat here! So does the bird really manage to win the battle and gulp that whole thing okay? Does the fish put up a good fight, if eaten does the unlucky prey get swallowed wriggling all the way down as well?!
Rick Furmanek replied:
Thank you for your comments. It is a carp. Yes, the bird won the battle. It seemed to gulp it down with little problem. Pretty amazing to witness.
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