Naturalists in spots of natural beauty in Wevelgem and Harelbeke (West Flanders) have noticed an unusual visitor: a cormorant that eats other birds. Cormorants usually only eat fish.
Ornithologist Francis Pattyn has managed to record the bird’s bizarre behaviour and has posted a video showing how the cormorant hunts birds on social media. The video shows the cormorant hunting a little grebe. The cormorant first dives ten metres deep and on its return grabs the little grebe in its beak. It attempts to suffocate and drown its prey before eating it.
Fishers are usually wary of seeing cormorants as they often steel their catch, but fisherman in Wevelgem and Harelbeke are quite happy to share space with this cormorant as it is only interested in other birds.
Ignaas Robbe has been following the bird for several years but is at a loss as to why it eats other birds: “Is it opportunism? Has it learned this behaviour or is it a quirk of nature? Biologists will have to find the answer!”
The Nature and Forestry agency doesn’t intend to intervene as the cormorant isn’t a member of an invasive species. The bird does not pose a major danger to little grebes or have a big ecological impact.
