TKFranzen

Little white Blue

Often confused for a Snowy Egret, the juvenile Little Blue Heron is white for the first year of its life. If you look closely there are a lot of features that d...
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Often confused for a Snowy Egret, the juvenile Little Blue Heron is white for the first year of its life. If you look closely there are a lot of features that distinguish these two species. The most obvious for me is in the legs. The legs of a Little Blue are pale green, rather than black with yellow feet like the Snowy. The Little Blue has a thicker, grey and black bill, compared to the Snowy's thinner black bill. When hunting, the Little Blue is more of a stalker, often using a triangulation technique to isolate its prey. Snowy egrets are more gregarious, active foragers.

This year we saw several Little Blue Herons hunting both on Sanibel Island as well as inland. We found this one just past the exit of J. N. "Ding" Darling NWR. It had been hunting in a dark alcove. The dark background is a natural result of the exposure settings. March 26, 2016
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