This bird, called an American bittern, really wanted to eat this red-bellied mud snake. But the snake wasn’t making it easy. It took three tries before the bird could swallow the squirmy creature. Elise Kitchens, an amateur photographer from Houston, Texas, captured one of the snake’s attempts to escape from the bird’s mouth.
In March 2022, Kitchens was taking pictures of wildlife at Brazos Bend State Park, just outside Houston. Someone told her there was a bird eating a snake nearby. She ran over to find the bittern trying to hold on to the red-and-black snake. The snake “was trying to get away,” says Kitchens. “Wouldn’t you?”
Bitterns live in wetlands—permanently waterlogged areas. Usually, says Kitchens, the birds are hard to photograph because their brown-and-white feathers blend in with the surrounding habitat. “I have a million horrible photos of the birds,” says Kitchens. “But this guy was easy to spot.”
American bitterns feed on a variety of animals, such as insects, frogs, and snakes. To hunt, they stand still and wait for prey to come to them. Then, BAM! They spear the meal with their bill. “It’s a hold-your-breath moment,” says Tania Homayoun, a bird expert at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. She says the birds often struggle with wriggling prey like snakes. But once bitterns swallow, muscles surrounding the opening into the stomach clamp shut. This helps keep food down—that is, until after the birds are finished digesting. Then they regurgitate, or vomit up, bits like bones that can’t be broken down.