Juvenile Green Heron

Though it's a bit obscured, I'm glad I got this picture. Normally I like pictures of Green Herons because they're colorful birds with a striking look. This one though looks like a frizzy-feathered young heron, and I don't see them very often.

You might say that this can't be a heron; the neck is too short. Well, Green Heron's probably do have less neck length than some of its heron relatives, but it's longer than it appears in this picture. Green Herons are skilled at scrunching up their necks so the necks look shorter than they actually are. That's just the way Green Herons roll.

As I recall, the Duke Farms Waterfowl Count Team actually saw a bunch of juvenile Green Herons this summer, though I only managed to get one picture of them. You need to be in the right place at the right time, and you either need to see them before they see you, or you need to be so far away that they don't perceive you as a threat.

August 5, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 148952531, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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