grandpaw

Green Heron from this morning.

(Download)

Don G

Nice shot how long of a lens were you using?

AJFRED Loc: Alabama

Very nice!

steve L Loc: Waterville Valley, New Hampshire

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Beauty!

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

grandpaw

Camera was Nikon D500 with a Nikon 70-200mm lens with a Nikon 2x teleconverter

(Download)

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Lovely shot, there, Grandpaw … only thing is - think you've misnamed it … that's not a Heron ….

Double check it with the Ornithological sites … okay?

THIS is a Green Heron >

Green Heron

grandpaw

I am correct, what you are looking at is a juvenile green heron.

angler Loc: StHelens England

Nice shot.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Grandpaw - the first thing I looked at is the legs - which, as you can see - are quite long. Then, I looked at the beak - which is also long, and peaks. Then I looked at the body coloring, which includes stripes - which are absent on your bird. All-in-all, I suspect you have mixed it up with another species. There are many pics of Green Herons on the Net already. Why don't you look it up and compare those pics with yours. Okay?

grandpaw

I am not going to argue with you about this. I do know what I am talking about and I am correct in the name of this bird. The bird in the photo I am attaching is exactly the same bird.

(Download)

WildBill Loc: South West Florida

Very nice. Hope to have a few Herons and Egrets to post soon myself. Thanks for sharing. Keep them coming

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Okay, GP … it hasn't opened all the way, but I do see enough at the top to convince me you've shot this bird, many times, and are sure it's a Green Heron ….

There are so many species of birds, GP … and so very many of them look similar to others …

The Herons are a case in point - not only are there the egrets, but the bitterns … fully 64 species, GP …

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

The herons are medium- to large-sized birds with long legs and necks. They exhibit very little sexual dimorphism in size. The smallest species is usually considered the little bittern, which can measure under 30 cm (12 in) in length, although all the species in the genus Ixobrychus are small and many broadly overlap in size. The largest species of heron is the goliath heron, which stands up to 152 cm (60 in) tall. The necks are able to kink in an S-shape, due to the modified shape of the cervical vertebrae, of which they have 20–21. The neck is able to retract and extend, and is retracted during flight, unlike most other long-necked birds. The neck is longer in the day herons than the night herons and bitterns. The legs are long and strong and in almost every species are un-feathered from the lower part of the tibia (the exception is the zigzag heron). In flight, the legs and feet are held backward. The feet of herons have long, thin toes, with three forward-pointing ones and one pointing backward. The bill is generally long and harpoon-like. It can vary from extremely fine, as in the agami heron, to thick as in the grey heron. The most atypical bill is owned by the boat-billed heron, which has a broad, thick bill. The bill, as well as other bare parts of the body, is usually yellow, black, or brown in colour, although this can vary during the breeding season. The wings are broad and long, exhibiting 10 or 11 primary feathers (the boat-billed heron has only nine), 15–20 secondaries. and 12 rectrices (10 in the bitterns). The feathers of the herons are soft and the plumage is usually blue, black, brown, grey, or white, and can often be strikingly complex. Amongst the day herons, little sexual dimorphism in plumage is seen (except in the pond-herons); differences between the sexes are the rule for the night herons and smaller bitterns. Many species also have different color morphs. In the Pacific reef heron, both dark and light color morphs exist, and the percentage of each morph varies geographically.