ABC Wednesday: H is for Heron

The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. This one is the black-crowned night heron (夜鷺), Nycticorax nycticorax. It could be found throughout a large part of the world. The bird is very patient when it is ready to catch a fish from the pond. So, if we are patient enough, we can quite often get very clear photographs of this bird.

This is the subadult of the black-crowned night heron. It is an immature bird in the process of acquiring adult plumage. Notice its distinctive spotted feather!

This is probably another night heron about to grow into maturation.

Look at its blood-red eye, a hallmark of this bird!

This one is the Malaysian Night Heron (黑冠麻鷺), Gorsachius melanolophus. It has distinctive blue ring around its eyes and at the base of the beak. It could be found in Southeast Asia.

The grey heron (蒼鷺), Ardea cinerea looks very much like the great blue heron, Ardea herodias of the North America. It is a migratory bird breeds in Siberia, Northeast of China and Korea. It passes by Taiwan during the winter and early spring. This one kept itself in the distance in the middle of the pond. Not long after I took the picture, it caught a fish of over 1-foot long.

You may notice that the grey heron has the body shape of an egret. Egret is actually a common name given to any of the several species of herons with white feathers. Thus, I have to include here the picture of a little egret (小白鷺), Egretta garzetta.

Look at its yellow eye and black beak, which are very different from the great egret, Ardea alba and intermediate egret, Egretta intermedia.

You can enlarged the pictures to get an even clearer view by click on them.

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