Wood Ducks are one of my favorite species of waterfowl for a couple of reasons. Like most ducks their plumage is beautiful and very colorful, and secondly, they nest in tree cavities, making them even more interesting to watch as they raise their young.

Hi Connie, according to Birds of North America Online the Green Heron is an “opportunistic forager with varied diet. Overall diet includes invertebrates such as leeches; earthworms; aquatic and terrestrial insects such as adult and larval dragonflies, damselflies, waterbugs, diving beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, katydids; spiders; crayfish, crabs, prawns; snails; fresh- and saltwater fish; frogs, toads, tadpoles, and newts; snakes and lizards; and rodents. Fish constitute primary food; these include topminnows, minnows, sunfish, catfish, pickerel, carp, perch, gobies, shad, silverside, eels, and in urban areas and human-made ponds, goldfish.” Kingbirds are notorious for being aggressive toward other birds, especially if they are nesting nearby, which could also have been the issue for the Swallows as well.