northeast-flora-and-fauna

For Throwback Thursday, here's a bird I rarely encounter along with a bird I frequently encounter. The 1st 2 pictures are of a Little Blue Heron while the last picture is of a Great Blue Heron . Notice how dark all over the Little Blue Heron is, with its purple-maroon head and slaty-blue body. Wait, that's not what you're seeing? Sorry, that was a description of an adult Little Blue Heron; juveniles start out looking all white, and could be confused with a smallish Great Egret . In fact, the main reason I didn't make that mistake was because I had heard that a Little Blue Heron had been sighted here, so I was halfway to the right ID before I even saw it. Having said that, there are differences between Great Egrets and juvenile Little Blue Herons: Size: Normally I'd hesitate to even mention this since judging size from a distance can be error-prone. But in this case (see below) there was a Great Blue Heron standing nearby to use as a reference. Bill: The bill of the...

Here's a Green Heron at Duke Farms. The heron looks a little like it was stalking something, slowly approaching while focused on prey. But it was probably a false alarm; I didn't see the heron catch - or even lunge at - anything. Most herons are happy to wade in water, but the Green Heron prefers to stand outside of water when hunting for prey. I suspect this perch is a little too far above the water to allow the heron to reach the water with a strike with its beak, though other spots on this downed tree could be a perfect fishing spot for it. As I've mentioned before, there's no taxonomic difference between herons and egrets. In this area the Green Heron's closest relatives aren't the Great Blue or the Little Blue Herons, it is the Cattle Egret. (The Great Blue Heron's closest relative in this area is the Great Egret.) June 23, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 141961334, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)