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Project Noah Nature School
Anthropoides virgo
Pretty large bird (smaller than a swam) sitting in the lake. I'm afraid I only have this close-up...
Lake Rianhard, Celebration, Florida.
After quite a few comments deciding between two species, I'm pretty sure this is the Demoiselle Crane, although it is not supposed to live in this area... Probably an escapee from one of the many nature parks in the area.
Spotted on Oct 7, 2011
Submitted on Aug 30, 2012
11 Comments
Hi all, I added a note to this spotting and updated the species info. Thanks again all for the discussions!
Considering the bill shape, eye-stripe, and red eye, this is indeed a Demoiselle Crane, Anthropoides virgo. Little Blue Herons have much longer bills with a fleshy superlora area.
Why a Demoiselle Crane is at the given location I'm not sure. It could be an escapee or maybe a part of the park. The fact that it allowed close approach suggests captive provenance. Here is a similar shot of a Demoiselle Crane: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4517...
For the crest, demoiselles have white plumes behind their eyes that hang down like the crests in that bird...
This bird seems a bit too slender to be a night heron. The eye color may be simply a play of light, but the bi-color bill is like that of the little blue heron, possibly an immature bird. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/124...
That picture indeed looks very much like this one... I could kick myself for not taking more pictures...
Here's a pic of a demoiselle crane (Anthropoides virgo) from the same angle as the photo...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7212/72109...
I'm not doubting the night heron ID (Especially since the crane is not native) but I'm just skeptical since the bill really doesn't match and even in juvenile birds, the bill is black, not flesh-colored like in the photo...
I'm afraid this is the only picture I took. I didn't know Project Noah then, so I only took pictures for aesthetics... now I know better :-)
I will update the data and mark it as the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. Thanks again!
@RobBielawski Looking at the link you provided, it seems to be an immature one ? The specs seem to be right :
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Immature
Long neck
Thick, dagger-like black bill
Body grayish brown with thin white streaks on neck, small white spots on wings
Red iris
Long, yellow-green legs
Thanks both for the suggestions, I will investigate some more but Yellow-crowned Night-Heron seems right to me...
Looks like a demoiselle crane, but those are no where native...
Yeah I can see that, but my main concern is still the bill where it seems more flattened rather than the bulky dagger-like bill of the night heron. Also, it's flesh-colored instead of black. Finally, the eyes seem a little too small...night herons have huge eyes compared to head size...but I can kinda see night heron...
The head reminds me of a crane but there are no cranes of this color in range so the best by maybe little blue heron? It still looks more like a gruiform to me...