Bittern or ?? (1 Viewer)

Good Afternoon,

Can you wise folks tell me what the heck this is? I was stalking woodducks (with my canon) on a pond out back in early May and came across this fellow perched on a branch over the pond. He/she was about the size of a crow, was quite interested in grooming, had these long sort of hairy looking feathers, did not make any noise that I heard, and did not seem bothered by my presence about 25 feet away. The closest thing I can find is a least bittern, but this guy/girl does not look exactly like the ones in my ID books or anything that I've seen online.

Not sure how well the color shows up in the photos, but the head and back were slate gray, neck and breast were brown, feet were orange.

Thanks!
Angie

Hi Aack,

Welcome to BirdForum!

You have a Green Heron there - they breed in southern Minnesota, according to the map in the Sibley Guide

Michael

It'a a Green heron (Aka Green-backed Heron) Butorides virescens.

Dave

Hi Angie,

A warm welcome to BirdForum from all the Admin, Staff and Moderators.

As you can see questions usually get a swift response here. Hope you'll stick around and share more of your birding experiences.

Bird is in "High Breeding Plumage". The latest National Geographic guide states only the males legs & feet change from yellow to such a bright orange during the breeding season. Anyone know of other references regarding this? Will research it further when I get some free time (unless some genius out there does it first).

Hal

Hal said:

Bird is in "High Breeding Plumage". The latest National Geographic guide states only the males legs & feet change from yellow to such a bright orange during the breeding season. Anyone know of other references regarding this? Will research it further when I get some free time (unless some genius out there does it first).

Hal

Click to expand...

Sibley says simply that "The legs, bills and bare parts of ardeids change colour during the breeding season". He then goes on to give some examples, unfortunately not including the Green Heron.
I saw my fisrt and only Green Heron last year at Point Pelee and the brilliant orange legs were quite spectacular.