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July 20, 2007
Friday Feathers - No longer stumped
Updated 7/26
The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) is a medium-sized, stocky heron with gray body and brown-and-white mottled wings. Face is black and white; crown is pale yellow and sweeps back as a plume. Eyes are large and red. Bill is heavy and black. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has white-spotted brown upperparts and brown-streaked white underparts.
Food consists primarily of crustaceans, but also eats small fish, reptiles, amphibians, eels, insects, and mollusks; forages in open water, mud flats, and in partially submerged vegetation. - What Bird
I find myself in unfamiliar territory for this week's Friday Feathers entry; I can't identify this bird.
I have two books that I use for bird identification: Birds of New York and Field Guide to Eastern Birds. If that doesn't work I turn to the Web and try to find the bird using Whatbird.com or the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds guide.
A lot of variables go into the search. The bird's head and eye color, beak size, body shape, location, family and wing span. This bird looks like some type of heron, perhaps a juvenile, but I didn't find anything remotely similar to it.
What's throwing me off here is the black head and the white streak under its eye. I know I've seen that before as this particular bird looks very familiar, yet I've no clue what it is. Any idea?
Cindy
Comments
Hard to say -- doesn't look like good eating so I probably wouldn't know. A turkey, a quail, those I get.
Maybe a juvenile heron?
Brain matter deposited by: Al on July 20, 2007 6:42 PM
Al - I can't tell you how good it is to have you back... so I won't. ;-)
Meanwhile, duh. Ya think maybe it's a juvenile heron?
Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on July 20, 2007 7:52 PM
i think it's a young heron too, so i'm not much help.
Brain matter deposited by: zed on July 21, 2007 5:31 AM
Maybe a heron or an egret?
Brain matter deposited by: Tiger on July 22, 2007 10:03 AM
A black-headed, white-streaked, long-legged whatsamacallit.
Brain matter deposited by: Ozg on July 23, 2007 10:05 PM
Oh for Pete's sake! NONE of you are helping! Sheesh. It figures that Steve (SDY) is away and not around to help. *sigh*
Meanwhile back at the funny farm - Zoe and Tiger: I hear an echo... Oz, LOL!
Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on July 23, 2007 10:14 PM
As well as unusual dietary habits, the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is well known for confusing photographers and causing comments on blogs.
Brain matter deposited by: Ozg on July 26, 2007 10:05 PM
Ozg - LOL! I think I need to be stumped more often. :-)
Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on July 27, 2007 5:54 AM