How a Heron Bird became Dinner at the Fish Farm

How a Heron Bird became Dinner at the Fish Farm

Last week, we stocked bangus fry at one of our grow-out ponds. To protect the fry from bird predators, we installed nylon strings all over the pond.

The aim is to deter the birds from diving into the pond or getting near the water surface.

This anti-bird predation measure worked like a charm indeed as flocks of white Chinese egrets, and other usual predatory birds avoided our string-covered pond.

One day, my assistant saw a notorious predator bird (a medium sized heron) on top of a sack of chicken manure floating on the pond. He thought it was just perched on the sack waiting for fish prey. When he got near the bird, he saw that one of the nylon strings snared the bird’s leg, trapping the heron.

He quickly retrieved the trapped bird and brought it to the farm house. I saw the bird at close hand and decided to take pictures and study it further.

Captive black-crowned night heron (front view)

Black-crowned night heron (side view)

Although this type of bird is quite common in our fish farm and in the locality, a quick check from the Philippine Bird Gallery tells us that it’s actually the Black Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, scientific name). We and the locals call it “doroko” in Pangasinense.

The black crowned night heron is about 23-28 inches long, 25 inches high, has black crown and back, grayish wings and tail, whitish underparts (breast and belly), white eye brows and area above beak, red eyes, yellow legs. Its black beak is slightly hooked.

You can see a white plume on its head (used to attract a mate during courtship, according to bird experts).

Like the plain bush hens and white egrets, the night heron is one of the more familiar bird species populating the bangus (milkfish) and tilapia ponds in our farm. It’s seen hunched as it roosts on a tree branch or the bamboo support poles under a bamboo bridge. When alerted by an approaching person or eyeing a potential prey, it stretches its neck before flying out to escape or attack.

But unlike the white egrets, the night heron is a solo predator, just like the kingfisher. At its chosen perch around the pond, it waits patiently then attacks its prey (fry and young fingerlings) swimming near the pond surface.

Other predators like the white Chinese egrets (called “nursing” by the locals because of their all-white exterior or more properly “dulakak” in Pangasinense), attack in flocks so they cause more damage. The egrets are often seen after pond draining (“limas”), foraging in the shallow water ponds for remnant fish and even water insects. At night they roost at the branches of the narra trees at the southern part of our Main Pond. Another favorite evening roosts are the fronds of the coconut trees around the ponds.

Going back to the black crowned night heron, they too are considered delicacies by locals. After trapping them, they are usually cooked as adobo or with gata (coconut milk).

By the way, the black crowned night heron is not globally threatened. It falls under the "least concern" category of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List for birds. Thus, the conservationists won't raise a howl if we happen to accidentally trap a heron or two.

After my farm assistant retrieved the trapped heron, he went on to dress it and prepare it for cooking of “adobong doroko”. Here’s how he did it.

Procedures

Note to readers: We're unable to show in this blog post graphic pictures of how the bird is dressed and cut up for cooking, as these pictures violate Google publisher policies. Thus, published pictures of such were taken down by Fish Pond Buddy at the publisher's request.

1. Cut the head.

2. Slice the skin with feathers from the neck along the back up to the rump (toward the tail).

3. Peel off, by hand, the skin with feathers from the body sideways to the wings and downwards to the rump.

No need to use hot water to do this. 

4. Completely peel off the wing feathers from each wing.

5. Peel off the body feathers downward then pull, including tail feathers, from the rump (lowest part of body) .

6. Cut off the tip of the wings. 

7. Cut off the legs and feet.

 
8. Slice lengthwise along the belly from the throat to the rump  to expose the guts (intestines, heart, liver, gizzard, etc.).

9. Remove the intestines, heart, liver, gizzard, etc. and set aside.
 

10. Wash the carcass in a small basin.

11. Cut off the thighs. Cut the body into smaller pieces.

12. Fire up a clay stove and boil water. Boil in water and ginger the cut up body, thighs, including the liver and heart.

A fired up clay stove with boiling water

Cut up bird parts being boiled in ginger

The other inner body parts are thrown away and not cooked (intestines, ureter, kidney)

13. When the boiled bird meat is tender, set aside.  

Cut up bird parts already tender after boiling in ginger, ready for further cooking

14. Prepare garlic, onions, and plenty of ginger. Crush the ginger and garlic and dice them.

15. Saute the garlic, ginger and onion in a pot with cooking oil.

16. Put the cut parts into the pot and cook.
  
17. When the “doroko” is dry and the spices absorbed into the cooked flesh, add local vinegar (nipa or sugar cane) and soy sauce. If you have them, add bay leaves and pepper corn.

Bird meat parts being cooked into adobo

18. Cook some more, then serve hot with newly boiled rice.

Cooked "adobong doroko (night heron)"