Herons of North America
We have six heron species in the United States. While in Florida where they vast in numbers, I was able to photograph five of them with little difficulty, and I’m still going through my photos.
The one that eluded me during those three months was the adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron. So I’ve included a photo courtesy of Eric Lipton to show for comparisons.
I thought a great way to share more heron photos would be to see them side-by-side in one post.
Do you know them by sight?
Great Blue Heron, 38-54″ tall
Tricolored Heron, 23-28″ tall
Little Blue Heron, 22-29″ tall
Black-crowned Night Heron, 22-26″ tall
Green Heron, 16-18″ tall
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 21-28″ tall, photo courtesy of Evan Lipton, Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sharing some shots in their habitats…..
Green Heron
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Great Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
As with many young birds, it gets a little trickier with some of the heron juveniles, especially the juvenile Little Blue Heron that is surprisingly all white. I actually heard people ID it as a Snowy Egret on several occasions. You can see the similarities (and differences) in the right photo below.
Adult Little Blue Heron following a juvenile Little Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron (right) compared alongside a Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron adult, juvenile and Snowy Egret comparison
Herons are fun to photograph and a favorite among many. (And I still have heron photos to go through, so more to come I’m sure. 🙂 )
