What do we have here? This little guy really befuddled me this afternoon. Something about his behavior made me think he was a juvenile, but not so young as to need parents watching over him. And I knew I'd never seen a bird that looked so much like wet newsprint before.After reading descriptions of every dark-feathered heron at allaboutbirds.org, I finally decided he's a little blue heron, probably about a year old. And how did I come to that conclusion? Well...
It is the only heron species in which first-year birds and adults show dramatically different coloration: first-year birds are pure white, while adults are blue... Enters adult plumage in the first spring after hatching and may be pied white and blue.So I guess you could say he's in his ugly duckling phase right now. It's a good find for me, since I've only seen a little blue heron out there once or twice before.
In related news, it's been raining a lot this week. The pond is way swollen. Compare these two photos, taken back in April (with the ducks) and the yesterday:
OK, so maybe they don't look so vastly different in the pictures, but trust me. There's a lot more water out there now!
Ooh, that is a good find! I've seen plenty of little blue herons but never a juvenile but then I had no idea they were white as juveniles. I'll be checking my herons more closely from now on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
check out the link above. it's pretty interesting. :)
ReplyDeleteHA! Thanks for pointing out the link, you just solved a mystery for me. I HAVE seen a juvenile Little Blue Heron I had just completely misidentified them. I thought they were immature Snowy Egrets but now I know better!
ReplyDeleteYou know how White Ibis start out dark and turn white? I just assumed that when I saw these mottled little birds that this was what happened with the Snowy Egrets, too (dark to white) and that what I was seeing was immature Snowy Egrets. I was totally off base because going from white to dark never occurred to me) That will teach me to assume anything about birds. They do the damnedest things!
Thanks again!