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WITW: Special Thursday birdie edition

What in the world?!

WITW%20bird%20100208.jpg

Seriously -- what in the world is this? A crane? A heron? I'm terrible at ID'ing birds other than blue jays (they're blue, duh), cardinals (they're red) and robins (they have orange heads).This guy was hanging out by the creek along South Lindell Road and Walker Avenue in Lindley Park around lunchtime today. I was driving by, stopped in the middle of the street and took a few pictures. He didn't move -- he turned his head a couple of times but didn't go anywhere. I've seen birds like this in the Arboretum, which is a little farther north from where this guy was, but never seen them south of Walker.

Anyone know exactly what kind of bird this is.

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Posted by John Newsom on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 1:14 pm

What do you think?

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Michele van Gobes (imported)

October 2, 2008 - 2:27 pm EDT

I believe it is an Egret

Mike Clark (imported)

October 2, 2008 - 2:39 pm EDT

Looks like a great blue heron to me.

jamie (imported)

October 2, 2008 - 2:56 pm EDT

I think its a stork.....

Donna M (imported)

October 2, 2008 - 3:26 pm EDT

Yes, I agree, it looks like Great Blue Heron. Great photo!

Ellen (imported)

October 2, 2008 - 10:13 pm EDT

I also agree that this is a great blue heron. I saw it in Lindley park on Wednesday evening around 7 pm, but the light was not sufficient for me to get a good picture.

H'Juel Ya (imported)

October 3, 2008 - 8:16 am EDT

I saw the same bird yesterday afternoon, at Hester Park around 6pm. It must have really treaveled far down south. My boyfriend & I tried to identify it, he got close enough to it to where he believes it's a great blue heron as well!

John Newsom (imported)

October 3, 2008 - 12:35 pm EDT

I think we have some winners. According to my wife (who's good at figuring out birds) and the N&R's resident bird expert (photo director Rob Brown, who owns the building's only copy of "A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America") ...

... this is a great blue heron. The picture on page 95 of the field guid (revised edition, c. 1983) is pretty close.

Here is a picture by someone who knows what they're doing with a camera. And here's some more info and the requisite wiki page for you heron fans out there.

Tony Ledford (imported)

October 6, 2008 - 6:41 pm EDT

We've got one of these on Lake Hamilton, too. (Same one? What's their range?)

Mikey (imported)

October 9, 2008 - 4:31 pm EDT

That is a Great Blue Heron. I see them often along the creek in Lake Daniel Park. In fact I have one that visits my garden pond in Westerwood to score an easy meal of goldfish. They're pretty shy birds though. Great photo.