Cool Marbled Murrelet video

Here's a video I took of a Marbled Murrelet eating a Herring.  It was in Sitkoh Bay, on Chichagof Island, and its in slow motion, so it took all of about a minute to complete in real time.  The bird is pretty small, about 8 inches long, and the herring is about 5 ot 6 inches long, so its a big bite.  

https://youtu.be/BtTit7tfpuI?si=oBKIYeZL2u9CsAVA

Sadly, the next day, I found a dead murrelet in the same area, and it might have been the same bird.  I think possibly the eating of the fish was too much weight?

Here is before it caught the fish

Then after it came up with the fish, see how there is a smooth transition on the back behind the head?

after eating, now there is a bump behind the neck

In the water, when I picked it up.

A front view

Side view

A look at the mouth and tongue

And the underside.  I'm really impressed with how soft the bird is, and the cute little feet

And also how far back the wings are.  They don't extend much further forward.  And the tail is so small.  Its very different than most other birds.

I touched the feathers a bit, so they aren't in as nice of condition, but the oil on the feathers really is neat.  They are perfect and water just rolls right off.

So it was sad but also very neat to learn about the Murrelet this way.