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with Phyllis Yochem
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Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Identifying herons from egrets is more than just an exercise in appearance
Dietary, personal habits offer clues to determining differences between the birds
Last week's column tried to explain which of our many wading birds in waters around Corpus Christi are herons and which are egrets. We described great blue herons, great egrets, reddish egrets, and little blue herons.
Often the best clues for identification may be found in the behavior of the birds.
Members of the heron family, which includes egrets, usually do not spear their food. These birds grasp the frogs, fish, mice, etc. that make up their diet in their mandibles, then swallow the food whole. Undigestible portions are regurgitated in pellets. This is the same digestive process that is employed by owls.
We once watched a great blue heron for more than an hour trying to position a largish catfish so as to be able to swallow it head first. We speculated that the prickley spines on the catfish were less lethal with the fish headed in that direction.
Most herons and egrets are fastidious in their personal habits, leaving the water to defecate. Although they do not have webbed toes, almost all of them can alight on the water and take off from it. Except for bitterns, most of the family have exceptionally long legs. To lower their bodies, they bend their knees, which fold backwards. They fly with long necks tucked well into the shoulders and with legs extended full length behind. Flight is usually a slow, steady flapping.
The tri-colored heron was formerly known as the Louisiana heron. It is slightly larger than a little blue heron. As with the little blue, its upper parts are mainly blue. Its belly, however, is snowy white. The tri-colored part comes in when the bird is immature, from the mellow chestnut color of feathers along the top part of its long neck. The identifying mark to look for is the white belly.
Snowy egrets are easily identified. Their size is the same as that of the little blue heron, 24 inches. Their plumage is all white. Bill and legs are black, but feet are strikingly yellow, hence the nick name of "golden slippers." If feet are hidden by water, a snowy can still be identified by an area around the eye, called the lore, which is golden to match the slippers. Snowies flocking to roost in late evening can transform a dark swamp into a magically decorated stage scene.
Green herons are small, usually solitary birds found in damp places beside streams, ponds, lakes or swamps, preferably overhung by trees and bushes. Short legs are usually dull yellow but become bright orange in breeding plumage. Back and sides of neck are deep chestnut. Blue gray upper parts are flecked with luminous green. When the bird is startled, it raises the greenish black feathers of its crown to form a shaggy crest.
Green herons were once known as little green herons and appear as such in older field guides. In spring, one or two usually drop in to spend a few days by the creek that runs through Blucher Park. They make a big thing of being disturbed and protest by giving a harsh, loud "whonk" call, and dangling orange legs as they flee to safety.
Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi
resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.
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