Love the fact I have so many options for what type of bird I am looking at (1 Viewer)

[Hooded oriole]

I am very fortunate to live in San Diego county and get to see 100’s of different birds depending on time of year. I live by many lagoons in the county so shorebirds and ducks are a must but so hard to see & photograph from a difference. But here is my current dilemma. Reddish egret vs little blue heron. So first photo, size says little blue heron, reddish egret and of course great egret. Correct? But all 3 are in fast moving water coming through an inlet, so feeding style out the door here. Am I going on size and color of bill base. But my second photo what looks like a reddish egret from size is just standing still not “stalking “. And being farther away, bill color is hard to pick up in sunlight. And some ID apps say reddish egret and some say little blue heron. Thanks for the help.
Side note also, so hard to ID these water birds in the winter. They all look the same because they are not wearing their brighter summer colors.

 

[rkj]

Lucky you to live in such a great birding area. Welcome to the group.

I think you have two Reddish Egrets in the photo with the Great Egret. There is a peculiar phenomenon in photographs where a object further away can look bigger than one closer - this is sometimes called the size illusion. The bills on both birds look pinkish at the base -> Reddish Egret. In the other photo I think you have a Reddish Egret again - hard to judge the bill color there, but the size compared to the other birds at a similar distance seems larger than I would expect for Little Blue Heron and the neck looks shaggier.

 

[Hooded oriole]

Lucky you to live in such a great birding area. Welcome to the group.

I think you have two Reddish Egrets in the photo with the Great Egret. There is a peculiar phenomenon in photographs where an object further away can look bigger than one closer - this is sometimes called the size illusion. The bills on both birds look pinkish at the base -> Reddish Egret. In the other photo I think you have a Reddish Egret again - hard to judge the bill color there, but the size compared to the other birds at a similar distance seems larger than I would expect for Little Blue Heron and the neck looks shaggier.

Thanks for the help! Big problem for me is I don’t always trust myself and follow the tech I am using. When I inputted 7 reddish egret into my eBird checklist, it got flagged as not that many are normal. So I second guess myself. So I should do my best and make notes in the checklist?

 

[rkj]

Thanks for the help! Big problem for me is I don’t always trust myself and follow the tech I am using. When I inputted 7 reddish egret into my eBird checklist, it got flagged as not that many are normal. So I second guess myself. So I should do my best and make notes in the checklist?

Yes, and add photos whenever possible.

 

[rkj]

And I might add, if you are unsure of the exact id, "egret sp." or whatever is appropriate for the group you are looking at, is fine. Personally, when it comes to gulls, I use "Larus sp." a lot.