Herons, egrets and bitterns are closely related water birds with dagger bills for spearing fish and other prey. Herons are usually dark, egrets are usually white and bitterns are brown with many subtle hues. In addition, this group of three also has long legs for wading and long necks for throwing their lethal spear toward their intended prey. Let’s look at these beautiful birds and learn some factoids about them.

This Great Blue Heron has caught a Walking Catfish in the Everglades and is holding it by one of the two wicked pectoral spines. What followed was a half-hour of working to break the spines and finally swallowing the prey harmlessly. Walking Catfish were introduced into Florida’s subtropical ecosystem and is doing very well.

Killing the catfish isn’t so easy, even armed with an oversized dagger bill. This bird stuck it repeatedly but the alien fish refused to die. The fish’s “whiskers” flailed around in thin air trying to ascertain an explanation for the rude treatment. And finally, after repeatedly stabbing his piscine prey, our hero swallowed it without incident.

Great Blue Herons are beginning to nest in South Florida and this male is trying hard to lure a lady into his abode. The neck, head and bill pointing straight up indicates desire for a nesting partner, at least until I spoke with him briefly. But seriously, low water in winter makes catching fish easier, which is why quite a few picivorous birds nest then.

This male Great Blue has finished copulating with his mate and is dismounting. Even on a dreary, gray day there is hope for the next generation. These palms were redone by experts to make them more acceptable to herons and the results are obvious. Eggs will be laid in February with young hatching by March

Parent birds will spend many hours a day delivering fish to their young and getting them grown as fast as possible. Baby birds of all species are rather helpless and time is of the essence. This group of three fish-eaters all fly with their head and neck pulled in, as this bird will do as soon as he gets well airborne.

This Great Blue in high breeding plumage has speared a Crappie, a fish related to sunfish (“bream”). This pan fish was for the unattached hunter and he downed it with surprising haste. Bare skin in several herons and egrets may turn various colors as part of what is known as “high breeding plumage,” colors designed to impress the opposite sex.

An interesting aspect of the Little Blue is that they very often hold their neck at a 45¬degree angle while foraging for fish (this one dropped his head slightly to nail a fish). I must tell you that I realized this while having lunch with David Sibley, who just threw it out there over a sandwich on Galveston’s Strand. I have never met a person who knows birds more deeply than DS, and often think of him while gazing at Little Blues. (I also have some relatives who remind me of certain birds, but we won’t go there.)

Here you see the typical s-shape of the neck on herons, egrets and bitterns while flying. The Little Blue is about as uni-colored as a heron gets, although the neck is often more purple than blue. Note to photographers: While it’s obviously important to get the eye (or entire head) in focus, a bird entire in focus while flying is a rare treat. It allows one to see the individual wing feather arrangement, as well as the retrices in de tail. 😉 Sometimes confused with the Little Blue, due to the hard-to-see white belly, the Tri-¬colored Heron is amazingly abundant all over Florida. They often feed very close to the water, usually snapping up small “minnows” with their long, thin bill. This is a very southern bird, once named the “Louisiana” Heron, perhaps a better name than the present.

Tri-colored Herons are very active feeders, but rather than racing after surface-feeding fish like Reddish Egrets do, they tend to be a methodical stalker. Their long legs and neck allow them to nail minnows further off than most waders can accomplish. This bird appears to be somewhere between the purple-necked immature and the breeding adult.

Wading birds have among the most parasites of any avian group. This Green Heron is after one in the rear quarters, and will likely do a little preening while he’s there. This species is a confirmed tool-user and I have twice seen one doing just that here on Anhinga Trail. Once, it defecated in the water, spun around and nailed a minnow which was investigating. The other time it used a flower petal.

Juvenile Green Herons are sometimes mistaken for bitterns and such because of their stripes. However, they feed the same as adults, sound the same and really shouldn’t be confused. Streaks, spots and dull colors are often found in juvenile birds, as it affords them better camouflage at a time when they don’t need bright (breeding) colors.

Great Egrets are the World’s largest egret, and were also known as American Egret and Common Egret last century. The first was changed because they are found all over the Western World and the second because they are NOT found in the Old World (like the name “Common” implies in science). They are also the symbol of the National Audubon Society, who has done tremendous work in preserving all waders and many birds.

Snowy Egrets are widely known for their yellow feet, although the Little Egret of the Old World also has them. They use these flash colors to run tadpoles and benthic fish off the bottom and up for a meal, snagging them like lightning with their disproportionately long beak. Our Wood Stork also has yellow feet (presumably) for this purpose, although it would work great for camouflaging in squash gardens.

Cattle Egrets are abundant in the winter in South Florida, while they withdraw from the rest of the Country. This curious individual lacks the yellow bill and legs of typical ones, which may be an example of schitzochroism. This species does not compete with other wading birds for food, but has been very aggressive in breeding colonies. They also eat small, tired birds in places like the Dry Tortugas. This appears to be a non-native bird that got itself to the New World (rather than at the hand of Man) so we have let nature take its (occasionally) cruel course.

Reddish Egrets are in Florida, as well as Texas. This adult barely in breeding plumage has just caught a fish after a chase, the hallmark of the species. Obviously not all egrets are white, although about 16% of this species is actually white. REEGs have longer legs than other waders, less of a tail, a two-toned bill in the breeding season and very shaggy feathers to impress their potential mates.

Night-herons are chunky, short-legged waders with very large eyes for their (usually) nocturnal habits. They are often seen roosting by day in bushes alongside waterways and frequently heard under the cloak of darkness squawking up in the air. Obviously, the eyes, with their red rods and cones, allow them to see in low light situations.

Many people have learned to recognize the juvenile BCNH but are not as familiar with the sub adult plumage. These are grayer and lack the large, white spots of the juvenile. You can easily see how short the legs are on BCNHs and maybe you can see the yellow on the bill’s lower mandible, as opposed to yellow-crowns, that always have black bills.

Speaking of which, here is the exquisite adult Yellow-crowned Night-heron, roosting alongside salt water in Ding-a-ling my Darling NWR on Sanibel Island. With longer legs than the black-crowned, they have trouble with thick branches but can handle the rise and fall of tides more easily than BCNHs. Note the all-black bill.

This is what happens when a YCNH tries the thick branches, and this inexperienced immature looks like me working in one of my mother’s closets. Note the longer legs than BCNH, the all-black bill and smaller white spots than juvenile BCNH. Often I get the feeling that both night-herons’ eyes get redder with age, but breeding condition may also play a role.

A bird that might be as bewildering as the changing-plumage black-crown a few pages back is the changing Yellow-crowned Night-heron. This “teenager” is attaining the gray plumage and head-stripes of the adult but is far from the exquisite mature bird. Kind of like teenagers, very imperfetc. 😉 Bitterns are built essentially like herons and egrets but are stockier with shorter legs and soft, brown hues. This American Bittern is sometimes confused w/ juvenile night-herons, especially with blind observers watching them in a midnight thunderstorm. Note the streaks on the neck and the soft, buffy plumage.

Least Bitterns mostly winter in the Tropics but some hang out in Florida’s peninsula during the cool season (which Florida is quickly losing) (highs were in the 80s for our entire trip, in the month of JANUARY!). :0- This species nests over much of the South in reeds, cattails and other heavily-vegetated freshwater ecosystems. In many of the refuges we birded in, species were amazingly tame and abiding, used to people (without guns). 😉