[obol] Photos: Least Bittern wannabe

[Tim Janzen]

Dear Greg,
	When I looked at your photos of the juvenile heron at
http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/mystery.htm last night one of the field
marks that convinced me that this was a juvenile Green Heron and not a
juvenile Least Bittern was the prominent white line through the cheek just
below the eye.  Juvenile Least Bitterns should have a plain buff-colored
face without a prominent white mark on the cheek.  Here is a nice photo of a
very young Least Bittern:  http://www.pbase.com/glamis/image/44776115.
Here is a nice photo of a juvenile Green Heron that also has a yellow bill:
http://www.pbase.com/boidpikchas/image/61545163.  This is a good learning
experience for all of us.
Sincerely,
Tim Janzen
Portland


-----Original Message-----
From: obol-bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu
[mailto:obol-bounces at lists.oregonstate.edu] On Behalf Of Greg Gillson
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 8:16 AM
To: OBOL
Subject: [obol] Photos: Least Bittern wannabe

There it is! I thought, just as Lars and Tim gave up and drove off down 
Cedar Canyon Road.

Pale with some brown streaking, yellow legs, yellow-orange bill.

But wait, there's down sticking up on the top of the head. There's no way a 
Least Bittern nested here. No, there's a bit of chestnut on the side of the 
neck, and the back is bluish, not black as is should be. It's a newly 
hatched Green Heron. And there's another one emerging out of the grass... 
oh, it's more obviously a Green Heron, not as pale...

So I took some distant photos at 125 yards or so. Then I sent email to Lars 
with a link to the photos. Is this the bird you saw? Please say 'no'.

But Lars seems to think this is the bird he saw after all.

I have received some requests to show the photos. I present them as a 
learning experience and apologize to Lars for any discomfort. In 35 years of

birding I've made plenty of birding ID mistakes--just Saturday I called out 
"White-winged Scoters" when a flock of 6 black waterbirds with white wing 
patches flew by. I earlier had seen some White-winged Scoters. Nope. Not 
this time. Pigeon Guillemots. Good thing there were only 16 other people on 
the boat to see my mistake! Not nearly as bad as the time I ran out of the 
wheelhouse yelling "Laysan Albatross" only to have it morph into a Western 
Gull. "Well, it could have been," I muttered in my embarrassment.

There are some bird ID things to be learned here. I learned something new. I

do not view my brief afternoon chase as a waste of time. Who knew that young

Green Herons could be this pale with bright orangish-yellow bills? They 
aren't shown in the field guides with that pale of plumage.

http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/mystery.htm

Here's what they are supposed to look like, from Jackson Bottom Wetlands, 
Hillsboro, earlier in the day:

http://thebirdguide.com/temp_images/IMG_9424_green_hreon.jpg

Greg Gillson
The Bird Guide, Inc.
greg at thebirdguide.com
http://thebirdguide.com


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