At around 130pm I was walking through a small stream park in my
neighborhood and was seeing and hearing the expected birds. Then an
unusual shape caught my eye along the stream.
It was two small immature herons standing right next to each other.
I got a short look with my binos before the two birds flew up into the
trees and I lost them. I don't have any experience with immature
herons, so I was not really sure what kind they were. The eye reminded
me of Great Blue and that is what I thought they might be. But when I
got home and tried to find some pictures and descriptions of immature
herons, everything indicated that an immature great blue would have a
black cap. These birds did not.
So I headed back down to the park with my camera in hope that they would
still be in the same general area. Well at least one of them was and I
got a picture (though not a great one).
I got to study the bird more the second time. The head and breast of
the bird were a dirty white with fine brown streaking. The other thing
I noticed was that the shape of the bill seems more like a night heron
than an great blue. My wife and I have seen Yellow Crowned Night Herons
in this park on two occasions in the past. Could these birds be
immature Yellow Crowns?
I went back a third time with my scope hoping to get some good pictures
but I could not find the birds. I'll probably try again later.
Here is a link to the picture I managed to take this afternoon. I would
appreciate inputs from those of you who know young herons.
http://ahart.homeip.net/heron.jpg
-- allen hart
-- Herndon, VA
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