[obol] Great White Heron in OR

[peterpatricelli]

A friend, who is NOT a birder, recently mentioned seeing Great White Herons on his property near Tygh Valley.  I told him I suspected he was seeing Great Egrets, and was told that I was wrong.  While I am hardly a heavyweight, I have spent more time perusing bird books than most people and had never even heard of a White phase Great Blue Heron.  Now I come to learn that a formerly separate Florida species has been determined to represent an occidentalis subsp. of the Great Blue Heron.

But a Google search gives no help at determining whether this occidentalis subsp ever occurs in OR.  Obviously OBOL is the best place to ask this question.

Does the White phase (occidentalis) Great Blue Heron occur in OR?  How would one distinguish one from the commonly seen Great Egrets?

Peter Patricelli  
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