Florida Gulf coast - trying to differentiate green herons (1 Viewer)

[IDidiot]

I often kayak on a lagoon in the central Gulf Coast of Florida. I had three encounters with green herons (which I'd never once seen before in the lagoon). Anyway, I chose two (awful) shots of the first encounter, two of the second encounter, and 2 of the third encounter. I'm thinking they are two different individuals. After putting these together I think the first 4 shots are one bird. As I didn't see any two within one eyeshot, I could only log 1 on eBird. Opinions?

 

[rkj]

I agree you have at least two birds.

 

[tom baxter]

There is no doubt that you have at least two birds here. It is most appropriate to be conservative when counting birds, I would recommend erring on the side of conservatism as a best practice. This is one basis of being a good naturalist in my opinion. Favoring for “more”, whether it is higher counts, or rarer species, can be a pitfall for a naturalist because scientific data is most impacted by anomalies. If we record anomalies inaccurately it can skew the baseline of our data. In this case, it is not going to make much difference between 2 or 3 green herons because they are a common and relatively abundant species, but it is the forming of good habits that counts, since you asked.

 

[IDidiot]

There is no doubt that you have at least two birds here. It is most appropriate to be conservative when counting birds, I would recommend erring on the side of conservatism as a best practice. This is one basis of being a good naturalist in my opinion. Favoring for “more”, whether it is higher counts, or rarer species, can be a pitfall for a naturalist because scientific data is most impacted by anomalies. If we record anomalies inaccurately it can skew the baseline of our data. In this case, it is not going to make much difference between 2 or 3 green herons because they are a common and relatively abundant species, but it is the forming of good habits that counts, since you asked.

I totally agree. In this case I only reported one bird and noted in the details that I believed there were likely two individuals. I count in this area a few times a week and watch the area with binoculars a few times a day. I was surprised to see what I believed was two new species examples on one day. I thought it would be a fun puzzle to put up for comment. Thanks for your reply.