A Novel Food Item and Foraging Strategy for the White-faced Heron Egretta novaehollandiae

This note reports two opportunistic observations of a White-faced Heron Egretta novaehollandiae foraging on a road-killed Bennett’s Wallaby Macropus rufogriseus on King Island, Tasmania, in April 2008. Bennett’s Wallaby has not been recorded previously as a food item of this species, and records of opportunistic foraging on road-killed mammals by this heron are scant. Possible reasons for this novel foraging behaviour are explored.