09/07/06 Beach cast Australasian gannet with a fish back-bone protruding from beak

Kevin Matthews from Far North NZ emailed me a couple of photos of a beach cast Australasian gannet he found on East Beach (Rangaunu Bay) Northland on Sunday 9 July 2006. The interesting part was the fact that the backbone of a relatively large fish is protruding from the beak which is firmly agape. Clearly the bird has tried to swallow a fish that was too large (and I have seen them swallow some pretty huge fish!) and the fish became stuck and was not able to be regurgitated. The bird must have died from starvation and has then been washed ashore, with the bony remains of the still fish protruding from the beak.