Male Oriental Magpie Robin investigating the Gourami fish from our pond
As a way of getting to know our pondlife better I sometimes put a fish trap out overnight then empty its contents into a small aquarium. After a good look and taking plenty of photographs I then release everything back into the pond. However, one day I left the fish in the tank for a few minutes and when I came back saw that they had attracted the attention of our resident pair of Oriental Magpie Robins. These birds are always inquisitive and often follow me around the garden hoping that I will disturb something edible for them. As long as they can swallow it they eat just about anything that moves. They clearly wanted to try these Gouramis swimming around so tantalisingly close but couldn't work out how to get at them. They tried all angles with the fish moving away at first but in the end just staying where they were. Sensibly the birds did not try diving in as they might have struggled to get back out but I'm sure they thought about it.
It looked very frustrating for them and a bit of a torment for the fish so after taking these photos I let the fish go and did some digging so the Robins could get a real meal.
Female also having a look
The pair consider the problem together
He's not quite built for diving so he didn't try
