Subject: [Tweeters] Little Blue vs Snowy
Date: Sep 7 12:46:59 2006
From: Dennis Paulson - dennispaulson at comcast.net


Hello, tweets.

After reading the post that included Kenn Kaufman's words from his
Field Guide to Advanced Birding, I can't add anything but to say the
characteristics he cited are exactly how I distinguished immature
Little Blues from Snowies, including juveniles, in all the years I
lived in Florida and subsequently. The two can look surprisingly
similar. Little Blues can have quite yellow-green legs, not just blue-
gray, and juvenile Snowies can have legs and feet that are almost
entirely yellow. The bill of both can be entirely pale at the base
and dark at the tip, with some variation in color. I have always
considered the gray tips to at least a few primaries to be diagnostic
of Little Blue, although apparently not every individual has these
(whenever I have looked for them in an immature Little Blue, however,
I have found them). I don't think the way they stand or their neck
shape can distinguish them, but behavior indeed does so. I don't
think I have ever seen a Little Blue of any age running around like
Snowies often do. And I've been long fascinated by the fact that
Little Blues flew with their necks extended much more than other
small herons.

Just think if birders expended the same amount of brain power trying
to understand heron coloration (why Little Blues change color with
age, Reddish Egrets come in two color morphs, and Great Blue Herons
in certain areas of the Caribbean are white, while Great and Snowy
Egrets don't show such variation) as we did trying to figure out how
to identify them. Wouldn't that kind of understanding be great?
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20060907/69dc96e1/attachment.htm