Image credit: Audubon website. Little Blue Heron.
This week I spotted a new-to-me visitor to Pineneedle in Wildewood (Week of May 31, 2016). It's a small, dark heron called Little Blue Heron. The one I saw was an adult (I know it's an adult because juveniles are white and look like a Snowy Egret.)
"Adult Little Blue Heron are very dark all over. At close range or in good light, they have a rich purple maroon head and neck and dark slatey blue body. (Here is a photograph showing its gorgeous maroon colors.) They have yellow eyes, greenish legs, and a bill that is pale blue at the base, black at the tip" (All About Birds).
They are usually silent. But they do have a distinct hoarse, squawk that I've heard after dark. I often wondered what type bird was making this croak. Now I do!
Here are a few photographs I took of our bird-resident neighbor.
