ML611217754
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult, Unknown sex - 1
- Sounds
- Call
- Playback
- Playback not used
Media notes
Three 'woh' calls between 2 and 8 second mark (2.5, 5.15, 7.25). Very faint on this recording; best to use headphones, etc. All three calls do faintly register on the spectrogram.
Observation details
Continuing (but sneaky) rarity originally found by Zach Johnson, Bryan Calk, etc on Nov 12 during a RGVBF fieldtrip to the ranch. As soon as we reached the Brown Jay spot at 11:06am, we heard the low growling calls and 'woh woh woh' coughs of the tiger-heron at fairly close range as it flushed away from the wooded puddle below the two-track road. We began scouring the area and walking upriver along the road but couldn’t find it. Very unique calls compared to our usual herons/egrets here; many of which were also heard calling throughout the day. Nolan walked back to the original spot around 11:20am and saw it (a large, chunky, brown heron) flush out the puddle again, and we all heard it calling again immediately afterwards from trees out along the river. Later, at 2:53pm, while we were sitting around staking out the Brown Jays, Chris spotted the tiger-heron flying past at treetop height right behind us! It was heading upriver, and multiple people were able to catch a glimpse that time! It had possibly just flown out of a clump of willows along the river from where we had last heard it, and may have tucked back in to the forest again after that short flight. Surprisingly large, thick heron. Brown overall with dark-gray wings and a thick outstretched neck. Short legs (stretched-out neck was at least 2x leg extension). Although our views were only good enough to say it was not a juvenile, the photos taken on November 12th show this is an adult (gray cheeks, uniform brown upperwing coverts and back, etc). This is the 3rd record for Texas and the ABA. The previous records are Dec 2009-Jan 2010 (2nd-year subadult at Bentsen SP, Hidalgo Co.) and Feb 2017-May 2018 (adult in Uvalde Co.).
Technical information
- Recorder
- iPhone 15PRO
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 72.62 KB