White Heron

[flossiepip]

White Heron hanging around the river at Ruawai this morning! There is still one Common Tern there too!

[flossiepip]

(291.27 KiB) Viewed 1199 times

(630.63 KiB) Viewed 1199 times

[sjacques]

Hi Flossiepip,

With the pale grey upperparts (contrasting little with white underparts), lightly marked carpal bar and white 'ticks' on the closed primaries I think the tern is an immature (I.e first summer) white-fronted tern. I agree with the I.d. of common for all birds in your other thread except the one posted on 21st Jan which I think is also immature WFT. These immatures can be tricky to separate from vagrant terns, their primaries are often darker than the adults in summer being more worn.

Great photos by the way and excellent observations all round.

Cheers,
Sean

[flossiepip]

(207 KiB) Viewed 1153 times

You may be right, however I will put up a second image taken from a different angle of the same bird. The light after early morning is just to bright and harsh, you really need softer light. Still I will leave it to others to decide on this one!