A fellow WordPress photographer (talain45) posted beautiful shots of a Green Heron recently, and I promised that I would search for my old photos for a so-called Green Heron. The (ABOVE) snap shows the fusion of colors in this interesting heron.
Talain45 and I had a discussion earlier today on talain45’s blog about this fellow’s coloration, as it seems to beam brown, green, or blue according to the lighting in which it’s photographed. We actually had discussed, in particular, the bird’s neck color, but, in fact, according to my bird book, it’s his back feathers that earned him his official name of Green Heron.
In the photo (ABOVE) a little greenish highlight can be seen in the baby’s back feathers.
The book, “Birds of North America”, edited by Fred J. Alsop III for DK Publishing, Inc., New York, explains the feathers can appear “more blue than green”. All of this still leaves us with little clue as to why the bird is called a Green Heron.
These old pictures (BELOW) aren’t very clear, but they do show a brownish neck, and the grown bird can be identified as a heron by the typical heron head and beak. But here, it’s still a debatable choice on the color of the back feathers!
The Baby Green Heron’s colors (BELOW) already show more of what he will become than the older photos (ABOVE) reveal on the adult.
My thanks for the discourse to talain45, and to my readers, as well, in this post of investigation and discovery!
+++++
Credit:
Photos from the personal and copyrighted collection of Barbara Anne Helberg
My Special Photos 