Can anyone ID this bird? Need help please: Is this a Great Blue Heron morph, a Great White Heron, or a Great Egret with a Great Blue Heron beak? Please help if you can. By the...

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

Is this a Great Blue Heron morph, a Great White Heron, or a Great Egret with a Great Blue Heron beak? Please help if you can. By the way.....I am aware of the on going debate over the Great White Heron in the Keys and Carribbean Islands is actually a Great Blue Heron morph.

angler Loc: StHelens England

Cant help you with the ID but excellent shots.

BigAl Loc: Lincs UK

cant help on id sunfish but #2 is a beautiful shot and #3 Id crop tighter in portrait, clone out branches around beak.Id think that would be a cracker,realy going to show up markings of the feathers.

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

angler wrote:

Cant help you with the ID but excellent shots.

Thanks angler! Always appreciate your comments.

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

Bigal wrote:

cant help on id sunfish but #2 is a beautiful shot and #3 Id crop tighter in portrait, clone out branches around beak.Id think that would be a cracker,realy going to show up markings of the feathers.

Thanks Bigal! I'll do that. I haven't really consider that as a real keeper but it just might be if I work on it. Good sugggestion. I just wanted to post a close up of it's face for ID. If it's what I think it is, it is very rare to be where I found it. If it is I'll let the bird trackers associtions know about it's location for the record.

AnnieJ

Great photos! Wondering if this bird could be a Juvenile Little Blue Heron, which remains white in color for the first year of its life.

gregoryd45 Loc: Fakahatchee Strand

Sunfish 33 wrote:

Is this a Great Blue Heron morph, a Great White Heron, or a Great Egret with a Great Blue Heron beak? Please help if you can. By the way.....I am aware of the on going debate over the Great White Heron in the Keys and Carribbean Islands is actually a Great Blue Heron morph.

Great shots Sunfish 33, it sure looks like a GBH morph to me.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

It's a pleasure to look at,that's what it is!

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

AnnieJ wrote:

Great photos! Wondering if this bird could be a Juvenile Little Blue Heron, which remains white in color for the first year of its life.

Thanks Annie! It's too big to be a juvie Little Blue. I appreciate it.

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

gregoryd45 wrote:

Sunfish 33 wrote:

Is this a Great Blue Heron morph, a Great White Heron, or a Great Egret with a Great Blue Heron beak? Please help if you can. By the way.....I am aware of the on going debate over the Great White Heron in the Keys and Carribbean Islands is actually a Great Blue Heron morph.

Great shots Sunfish 33, it sure looks like a GBH morph to me.

I think you're right. The legs are too black. A Great White Heron has greenish / lighter legs. Here's a photo of a Great White Heron I took in the Keys earlier this year.

Great White Heron

Sunfish 33 Loc: Merritt Island, Fl

photophile wrote:

It's a pleasure to look at,that's what it is!

Thanks photophile! I think gregoryd45 is right....a morph GBH. I've never seen one before.

tk Loc: Iowa

Wow, great shots, Sunfish! Learned something new today!

briace Loc: liverpool uk

Sunfish 33 wrote:

Is this a Great Blue Heron morph, a Great White Heron, or a Great Egret with a Great Blue Heron beak? Please help if you can. By the way.....I am aware of the on going debate over the Great White Heron in the Keys and Carribbean Islands is actually a Great Blue Heron morph.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

rlaugh Loc: Michigan & Florida

I'm more of an expert on fishing buddies,but these are great shots!

mollymolly Loc: In the heart of the Everglades.

Good call gregory!! And excellent capture of a very rare bird Sunfish! This is indeed a juvie white morph GBH. I am including a photo, not taken by me, but from Google for identification purposes.

Juvenile White Morph Great Blue Heron