ML233013221

Age and sex

Juvenile, Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

Record accepted 2006-124 A small dark heron, slightly smaller than a Snowy Egret. Body size slightly larger than nearby large ducks. Back, wings, and tail dark slaty. Head, neck, and upper chest chestnut. Rest of under parts pure white, with straight border across the upper chest contrasting with dark neck. Legs extended well past the tail in flight. Neck held in a n "S" shape against the body in flight. I didn't notice the exact bill or leg color, although they appeared dark. Oscar's CBRC submission: Species: Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor Location: End of McDonald Road, near Mullet Island, SESS, IMP County, CA Date: 1 September 2006 Age and sex: Juvenile Molt status: None apparent Number of individuals: 1 Other observers: David Vander Pluym and Colin Wilkinson Original observer: Oscar Johnson Circumstances: David, Colin, and I had been birding the Salton Sea all day, and we were driving along Shrimpf Road out to Red Hill Marina to look for the Piping Plover when a Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) flew over the car! It flew north after landing briefly and landed in the next impoundment to the north, so we headed out that way to look for it. As we got the end of McDonald a large flock of birds took off, including the spoonbill. As they took off I spotted the Tricolored Heron as it took off with the rest of the flock. Both the spoonbill and the heron flew north and landed on the shore of the sea about a quarter mile to the north of us. They landed very close to each other, so we walked out to on the dried mudflat to get closer to them. Just before we started to walk out to where they were the heron took off and flew south in the direction of Red Hill Marina. I watched the heron fly away in the scope for about a minute before it disappeared. Description: A small dark heron slightly smaller than a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula). Body size was slightly larger than nearby Northern Shovelers and Pintail. Back, wings, and tail dark slate blue. Head, neck, and upper chest chestnut. The rest of the underparts were pure white with straight border across upper chest contrasting with dark neck. Legs extended past the tail in flight. The neck was held in an “S” shape in flight. I did not notice the bill or leg color, although they both appeared dark. Discussion: None of the other small dark herons are pure white bellow and dark above. Only Green Heron and Reddish Egret have some kind of chestnut color on the head and neck. Green Heron is much smaller with no white bellow, and Reddish Egret is larger and all dark.

Additional species

• Roseate Spoonbill Platalea ajaja

Technical information

Model

E7900

ISO

50

Focal length

7.8 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/4.8

Shutter speed

10/2351 sec

Dimensions

1270 pixels x 267 pixels

Original file size

93.36 KB