Kim_Johnson
This week I am posting about our wildlife here in San Diego County in Southern California. Here are my previous Wildlife posts for this week if you would like to check them out.
I have a hard time finding wildlife as my dogs are always with me, and scare them off usually before I even see them, but I have managed to get a few wildlife photos, though most are not good quality pictures they seem to work okay in a blog.
Now, about this Egret… I got so confused when I went home to research this bird. All I knew was that it was some kind of white crane looking bird, a bit smaller than the Great Blue Heron. I had always thought these were Snowy White Egrets, but while researching I found out there are differences, and other birds that look so similar. The tips that lead me to this identification were the legs, feet, and bill. In the Great Egret, the bill is yellow, sometimes tipped in black. The legs and feet are always a dark black.
The main differences in the look alike cranes.
Great Egret has a yellow bill, and black legs and feet.
Great White Heron is the biggest, and has a yellow bill and pale yellow-grey legs.
Little Blue Heron has mostly white plumage, grey wing tips, grey-yellow bill with a black tip and legs.
Cattle Egret is white in the winter and an orange color in the summer, has a short bill in orange and changes to yellow as an adult.
Snowy White Egret has yellow legs to bi color legs. (Yellow and black) the bill is mostly black, with yellow around the eyes.
#1 Great Egret
#2 Meika and the Great Egret
#3 Great Egret dog watching…
and all it wanted to do was take a bath!
Like the Great White Heron the male selects the nest area and drives away all other birds and waits for a female to come. The courtship displays include , stretching the neck upward, calling and a circular display flight.
Both sexes build the nest, sometimes in trees up to 90 feet tall.
They have 3-4 eggs that are pale blue-green.
