Bidragsyter
Dato
Lokalitet
- Age and sex
- Immature Unknown sex - X
Kommentarer
This photo (taken at 1:10 PM) shows the heron with a bloodied tip to its lower mandible, which, apparently, had pierced the throat (and arteries) of the rat, bringing about its death. Please note that in this photo the rat had just been swallowed, head first, into the heron's throat, and one can see the large distention of that white (tinged with yellow-green) throat. To appreciate the degree of distention shown here, one can contrast this photo with the two others in this set that show the heron directly side-on prior to its meal. They evince no visible extension of its white throat. RE. SOME AGE-RELATED MARKINGS: Upon close inspection of this photo one can see (lower half of bird) some residual, very broad white tips (with broad dark markings) on the upperwing coverts, which are characteristic of the wing coverts on immature individuals. Adults have much finer dark/light barring in this area.
Observasjonsdetaljer
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.
Teknisk informasjon
- Model
- Canon EOS 10D
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 300 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/11.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 sec
- Dimensions
- 904 pixels x 1206 pixels
- Original file size
- 354.62 KB