The term, Green Heron, does not seem like a good descriptive name for this species. Admittedly, their crowns might be considered to be a greenish-blue color. However, their folded wings look more gray than green to me. Beyond that, their plumage consists of a variety of colors. The most notable being the gorgeous rufous-red neck color, which flows down to the upper chest. Another stand-out color is the yellow in their eyes and on their legs and lores, i.e., the area between the eyes and the beak.
In this photo, the Heron perches on a log while intently waiting for a small fish to make its final mistake.
Green Herons have brown on the upper back, a gray-blue lower back with light gray highlights (which I had not noticed before), a gray-black tail, and a light whitish edging on their wings and coverts.
A moment later, the Heron strikes and the fish is promptly converted to food.
Their lower sides and under the wings are a more uniform light gray, while their bills turn dark with time, starting on the top....
...with varying amounts of yellow below. The underside of the neck, or the forward side when searching for passing dragonflies, is white with brown striping. The leading edge of the wings appears to be white.
This heron was obviously distracted by the dragonflies.
At one point, while I was watching, the heron stopped and inspected the underside of its wing for more than 60 seconds. It did not rearrange feathers or pluck off loose down or dig out any irritating insects. It just stared intently at the wing. All of the flight feathers on the left wing appeared to be perfectly aligned. It did not repeat the inspection under the right wing. Momentarily, I wondered if it was using its wing as a sunscreen, but that seemed like a stretch (pun intended). I still haven't figured out the logic behind this inspection.
Since there isn't much green on a Green Heron, I would love to come up with a more descriptive name. In my mind, Cliff Swallow is an example of a good name for a bird species. The word cliff suggests areas where they prefer to live and nest. Swallow describes how they eat, i.e., by opening their mouths and consuming insects in flight.
Maybe we could use this approach to find alternative names for Green Herons.
Green Herons are often found standing on logs above shallow water, while looking for small fish or frogs. When they their spot target, they crouch low and slowly seep forward with great stealth. Finally, the head and neck flashes forward with blinding speed and it snaps up its prey.
The rapid neck extension makes me think of a spear. Granted, Herons do not technically spear their prey - they normally just catch them in their bill. Still, this behavior and their typical hunting locations suggests that we could call them "Swamp Spears."
Another approach to good descriptive naming is to describe a striking color of the creature's plumage along with an obvious behavior. A good example of this is, the name Violet-green Swallow.
To me, the rufous neck on a Green Heron is their most striking color, and one of their most obvious behaviors is patiently standing on logs while watching for an opportune moment to feed. So a color-based name could be, "Red-necked Log-loungers."
While I am not seriously recommending these names, I do think the concept of descriptive common names would help make birding more fun and accessible for a larger portion of the population.
Even just calling them "Red-necked Herons" would be an improvement.
One striking behavior of a Green Heron is the way they raise their crowns when they see something of interest. Somehow, despite all their varied colors, maybe because they are often muted colors, Green Herons seem to fade into the background with ease. As you can see, above, this is also true for their raised crowns.
Luckily, in this photo, the bright green vegetation helps to show off the Heron's raised crown.
Another way a Green Heron shows excitement is by tail-flicking. The Heron's body hides the tail movement from the intended target. Otherwise, the motion would be self-defeating.
The tail-flicking happens near the end of the video. It almost looks like all the excitement and energy must go somewhere, so it escapes out the back, without alerting their prey.
After jumping off the log, the Heron did another one of the mysterious wing inspections, again, it inspected the left wing only.
The sounds of a dump truck on the gravel road, next to the UW Baseball field, directly behind the heron, caused it to flush and relocate.
For a time, it hunted in the little inlet just south of the baseball field, before relocating the second time to a small island between the Dempsey Center and the Conibear Shell House.
Did you notice how its crown looks blue in this light, especially when you compare it to the green lily pads in the water?
Suddenly, a second heron flew to the same island. It kept a good distance while landing behind the first one.
By the way, can you spot some of the differences between the adult we have been following in the previous photos, and this new Green Heron, which is in its first year of life?
Here is a closer look at the young one, in case it helps. We'll get back to this question in a moment.
The adult remained focused on stalking prey.
From its location, about 100 feet behind the adult, the young bird ran halfway to the adult before slowing to a more stealthy pace.
This video is a nearly perfect reenactment of the way it approached the adult.
The adult snatched something small from the water, but it must have been aware of the young one coming up behind it.
The adult took its catch, flew south and momentarily landed in a small tree. The young one took to the air and came directly after the adult.
Again, the adult took to the air, it turned and headed back towards the slough by the baseball field, where I first encountered it. It appeared to me that the young Green Heron was defending its territory.
However, afterwards other ideas came to mind. I wondered if perhaps the young one might have been chasing its parent and wanting to be fed. If so, the parent's reaction implied "It's time for you to find your own food." If the adult was not the young one's parent may be it was just thinking, "You are not my concern." Either way, the young one is on its own.
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The critical differences in plumage that indicate youth to me are:
a) The inverted white triangles on the folded wings.
The white triangles are absent in the adult plumage.
b) The multitude of small dark brown stripes on the front of the neck and all the white stripes on the side of the neck.
Most of these smaller stripes are absent in the adult.
c) The tiny brown stripes on top of the head andd) The greater amount of yellow on the underside of the bill.
Click Here to read a post that discusses how the stripes on top of the head may be an indicator of gender.
I suspect most of these changes make the adult plumage a bit more striking and noticeable to potential mates. The one exception might be the change in bill color. I suspect this occurs for a different reason. Click Here to read about an idea that may explain why their bills go from bright to dark with age.
Have a great day on Union Bay...where nature lives in the city and black birders are welcome!
Larry
Going Native:
Each of us, who breathes the air, drinks water, and eats food should be helping to protect our environment. Local efforts are most effective and sustainable. Native plants and trees encourage the largest diversity of lifeforms because of their long intertwined history with our local environment and the local native creatures. Even the microbes in the soil are native to each local landscape.
I hope we can inspire ourselves, our neighbors, and local businesses to respect native flora and support native wildlife at every opportunity. I have learned that our most logical approach to native trees and plants (in order of priority) should be to:
1) Learn and leave established native flora undisturbed.2) Remove invasive species and then wait to see if native plants begin to grow without assistance. (When native plants start on their own, then these plants or trees are likely the most appropriate flora for the habitat.)3) Scatter seeds from nearby native plants in a similar habitat.4) If you feel you must add a new plant then select a native plant while considering how the plant fits with the specific habitat and understanding the plant's logical place in the normal succession of native plants.
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Keystone native plants are an important new idea. Douglas Tallamy, in the book "Nature's Best Hope, " explains that caterpillars supply more energy to birds, particularly young birds in their nests, than any other plant eater. He also mentions that 14% of our native plants, i.e. Keystone Plants, provide food for 90% of our caterpillars. This unique subset of native plants and trees enables critical moths, butterflies, and caterpillars that in turn provide food for the great majority of birds, especially when feeding their young.
Note: Flowering plants and trees, i.e. those pollinated by bees, are also included as Keystone Plants.
This video explains the native keystone plant concept in more detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5cXccWx030
The Top Keystone Genera in our ecoregion i.e. Plants and trees you might want in your yard:
Additional content available here:
https://wos.org/wos-wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Native-Plant-Resources-10-7-22.pdf
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In the area below, I normally display at least one photo with each post to challenge us to know our native lifeforms.
What kind of cone is the Squirrel consuming? Is this a native squirrel? Is it male of female?
Scroll down for the answers.
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Douglas Fir Cone: If you look closely you can see the three-pronged bracts between the scales on the cone that are unique to Douglas Fir cones. Like the tree, the squirrel is the native Douglas Squirrel. Two nipples for feeding its young, are visible on the squirrel's lower abdomen, which implies it is female.
The squirrel did not actually eat the cone. It chewed off the scales and bracts to get at the hidden seeds, which it ate. It took the squirrel 60 seconds from start to finish. Even though it is not perfectly accurate, I like to describe the process as, "eating cone on the cob".
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The Email Challenge:
In response, I have set up my own email list. With each post, I will manually send out an announcement. If you would like to be added to my personal email list please send me an email requesting to be added. Something like:
Larry, Please add me to your personal email list.
My email address is:
LDHubbell@comcast.net
Thank you!
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The Comment Challenge:
Bottom Line:
If you write a long comment, please, copy it before hitting enter. Then, if the comment function fails to record your information, you can send the comment directly to me using email.
My email address is:
LDHubbell@comcast.net
Larry
