Great Blue Heron

wow! that is a lovely place indeed. Tremendous ongoing volunteer efforts!!Not done yet Gators!

I think your choice is correct. As Ashley said Great Blues can appear really small when hunkered, and add the perspective of looking up in a tree. Nice to see so many birds still where I grew up. :)

thnx all :)

It was early morning and it was cold. So lets call this the Great Blue Heron.

Herons have the ability to hunker down and look much smaller than they normally look when they are sleeping or are cold. Based on the leg proportion to the body size, colors, and all the wispy feathers on this bird, I don't see what it could be besides a great blue.

thnx Gators. That is a beautiful link. Really they were in the vicinity og Great blues and the size was no where near a great blues. Fortunately i had tons of great blues around these herons to be able to compare.!! Size wise not The great blue unless of course they are babies or juveniles.

Here is a photo of Great Blues nesting in a tree at Bolsa Chica: http://www.pbase.com/marauder61/image/12...

Really hard to ID - Ashley is correct that it should have more black on the back to be a night heron, and the size is hard to measure in the photo.

size was between the size of a green heron and night crowned heron. You might be right about it being a night crowned heron.

I did find one pBase photo of a juvenile Little Blue Heron and the list you provided has it as well. I am skeptical that these are Little Blue Herons because of the black stripe on their head and the white on the lower belly. Little Blues are an even blue. Their bills and legs are also blue and blue gray. Here is an adult spottings: PN http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/215... and here is a juvenile changing spotting: PN http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/224...
Do you have any other photos, or an approximate size?

I agree with Great Blue Heron. Black-crowned Night Heron would have a mostly black back

gators ,check this list out!
http://www.amigosdebolsachica.org/pdf/bi...

Continued to look for a mention of "Small blue Heron" at Bolsa Chica. All Blue Heron references were for Great Blue Herons, who have a black head stripe.

Jemma; here is the bird check list for Bolsa Chica; http://bolsachica.org/the-wetlands/bolsa...
Little Blue Herons are not listed, Reddish Egrets are listed as Uncommon
Black Crowned Night Herons are Common. Your photo has a black stripe on the top of the head. My guess from the shape, dark head, and yellow legs these are Black Crowned Night Herons.

These look like Great Blue Herons to me!