ML30196991

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - X

Media notes

This photo (taken at 1:04 PM) provides a nice portrait of the upper part of this bird, viewed directly side-on. It is the only photo in this set that was made with digiscoping (use of a hand-held camera to photograph through a scope) and thus had a magnification power of about 20X. I did not continue, though, to use digiscoping because (a) the bird was far too active and held a given pose far too shortly to make good use of digiscoping (with hand-held camera and no mechanical adapter to brace camera/scope interface), where setting up the shot and assuring its continued optical suitability took considerable time; and (b) the digiscoping arrangement, due to its high magnification, did not provide a wide enough view of the bird and its habitat.

Observation details

Based upon study of my photographs and review of my field notes, this individual exhibited somewhat less than full adult plumage, although it had mainly adult features. Nonetheless, I believe that labeling it (below) as adult might be misleading as to its actual plumage state (indicating age), so I am listing it below as "immature." PLEASE NOTE: In discussing below my photos I will point out specific features indicating that this individual evinced less than full adulthood, fully recognizing, though, that most of its features were like those of adults. I will, using this set of photos, also document this bird's capture and ingestion of a Hispid Cotton Rat and will supplement that by providing some visual observations of this heron obtaining and consuming its New Year's Day feast. This Bare-throated Tiger-Heron initially was found (and reported) on December 21, 2009 by R. Nirschl and R. Snyder. Publicity concerning this first-ever (USA) finding brought many birders to this state park to search for it. The present report concerns my own fifth effort to find and photograph it. A few days before this I had had a very brief sighting of a bird in flight, near day's end, that closer birders had affirmed was this desired species, but from my greater distance, seeing the bird briefly in flight in low-level light was inadequate for definitive personal identification and for photography.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 10D

ISO

400

Focal length

50 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/4.0

Shutter speed

1/180 sec

Dimensions

2500 pixels x 1873 pixels

Original file size

1.11 MB