Juvenile & Adult Little Blue Herons

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Adult Little Blue Heron

 

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

The juvenile Little Blue Heron is all white until nearly an adult.  Once and adult, the bird has purple-blue feathers, a grey-blue bill, and yellow-green legs and feet.  These are called herons but are actually members of the egret family of wading birds.

Juvenile Little Blue Herons closely resemble the Snowy Egret, but the difference is in the color of the bill and a lack of yellow just above the bill.  Snowy Egrets have a black bill.  Snowy Egrets also have mustard yellow-colored feet.  I took these photos here in The Villages, FL.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!

 

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Adult Little Blue Heron

 

 

Older Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Adult Little Blue Heron

 

A Little Blue Heron Hunting

 

This Little Blue Heron was spotted hunting in a very shallow rainfall water retention basin that was almost empty.  This pond is in the Souliere Villas neighborhood in The Villages, FL.

We only occasionally see Little Blue Herons here.  They are a wonderful member of the egret family and start out as white juveniles.  They closely resemble Snowy Egrets but do not have bright mustard-yellow feet and do have a bluish bill when in their white plumage.  They eat fish, frogs, small tender turtles, baby alligators, aquatic snails and larger aquatic insects.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.

 

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Little Blue Heron

Hooded Mergansers, herons, a Pied-billed Grebe, Florida Mottled Ducks, and a Lesser Scaup Ducks were spotted on Nov. 12, 2019 at a neighborhood park pond here in The Villages, FL.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Florida Mottled Ducks

Drake Hooded Merganser

 

 

Hooded Merganser Ducks, Hen Lesser Scaup Duck and Pied-billed Grebe

Tri-Colored Heron and Little Blue Heron

Pied-billed Grebe

Wordless Wednesday: Little Blue Herons

Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.  Enjoy!

Sandhill Cranes and a Little Blue Heron

Sandhill Cranes

A pair of Sandhill Cranes and a Little Blue Heron were seen at two ponds here in The Villages, Florida last week.  I saw the cranes on the shore of the small pond near Live Oaks Park on Morse Blvd. near CR 466, and the Little Blue Heron was at Freedom Pointe Lakes (The larger lake).  By the way, it has been very windy on several days here so a bit of blown-in trash is evident in the pictures.  Most of our shorelines are very clean here and this is a rare occurrence.

Both of these are wading birds that eat fish, frogs, aquatic snails, larger aquatic insects, small shoreline snakes, baby waterfowl, and baby Alligators.  The cranes also will eat grains and seeds.  I love seeing these beautiful big birds here!  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of that photo.  Enjoy!

Sandhill Cranes

Little Blue Heron

Sandhill Crane

Wordless Wednesday: A Few Wading Birds

Green Heron

Please click on the thumbnail images to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!

Tri-colored Heron

Wood Storks

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

 

Glossy Ibis

Great Egret

Adult Little Blue Heron

A Little Blue Heron and Friends

This Little Blue Heron and a pair of Mallard Ducks were spotted on the shore of a small pond in the Buffalo Plaza shopping area next to the NYPD Pizza restaurant on CR 466 in The Villages, FL on Friday at twilight.  I have sometimes seen a Little Blue Heron at this pond at times in the past during the Winter months.  There also was a camera shy Common Moorhen at the pond.

I have photographed birds at the pond before but it has been quite a while since I have seen much there.  I did check out the larger pond just to the Northeast on the Eastern side of the Walmart parking lot but did not see anything there other than a Great Egret.  Recently there has been some landscaping with the big grasses and reeds having been cut so perhaps that has affected the desirability of the pond for the big birds.  I also did not see any alligators.  Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo.  Enjoy!