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Project Noah Nature School
Ardea herodias occidentalis
This wading bird has yellow beak, yellow legs, and yellow feet with all white plumage. The "Great White Heron" is a subspecies of the Great Blue Heron, and could be confused with Great Egret except that t is larger, with yellow legs as opposed to the Great Egret's black legs. It is the largest North American heron. It has head-to-tail length of 91–137 cm (36–54 in), a wingspan of 167–201 cm (66–79 in), a height of 115–138 cm (45–54 in), and a weight of 2.1–3.6 kg (4.6–7.9 lb).
This was seen nesting for the duration of the summer at a small, shallow freshwater pond which is edged on two sides by forest. Adjacent to the pond (but not connected to it) is a wide open river with nearby forest.
According to the many birders who came into this Maryland state park specifically to view it, this is the white morph of the Great White Heron.
Spotted on Jul 9, 2012
Submitted on Mar 18, 2013
3 Comments
Please put the name of the Maryland park where you spotted this in the "Notes" section. Thank you.
Cool! I'm hoping some people will be able to confirm/disagree that this is a white morph. It is unusual for it to be so far north, so I was not 100% positive of the species.
I agree with the ID of Great White Heron. Too cool!