{"id":54521,"date":"2018-10-10T06:06:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=54521"},"modified":"2025-07-22T14:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:42:06","slug":"great-blue-heron-with-some-white-feathers-in-its-dark-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/10\/great-blue-heron-with-some-white-feathers-in-its-dark-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron With Some White Feathers In Its Dark Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

To say that I notice little things might be an understatement since I spot so many tiny birds while I am out in the field but I also notice small abnormalities in my subjects such as deformed feet or bills, damaged feathers and sometimes unusually colored feathers on birds where they shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron with odd white feathers in its crown – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The unusually colored feathers of this Great Blue Heron that I photographed on September 24th of this year caught my eyes because it has some white feathers in its crown where normally all the feathers are dark black. The heron had been feeding near one of the bridges at Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> which allowed me to get a few close up photos of its head. On the left side of of this heron’s head the white feathers in the dark crown look more speckled than anything else.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron showing white feathers in the crown where is should be dark – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

While on the right side of this heron’s head the white feathers seem to be a solid area that takes up about 1\/3 or a little less than 1\/2 of the dark crown area. I do wish now that the Great Blue had turned its head when I was taking the close up photos so I could have seen that side up close too.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron with white feathers in its dark crown – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This photo shows the white feathers in the dark crown area from a distance. Maybe this is a molt or perhaps it is leucism, I am not really sure but I do know that the white in the crown makes this Great Blue Heron stand out to my eyes. I didn’t think I’d seen a Great Blue Heron with a crown like this one before…<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

But then I checked my files and was surprised to find that I had photographed another Great Blue Heron with white feathers in its dark crown on November 25, 2013. Stranger still is that this Great Blue Heron was photographed in the exact<\/span><\/em> same location at Farmington Bay WMA as the heron I photographed this September.<\/p>\n

It might even be the same bird since these herons can live to be more than 24 years of age and with leucism and some other feather color abnormalities the amount of odd coloration can change from molt to molt. Maybe it is the same Great Blue Heron, maybe it isn’t. I just found the white feathers in the dark crown of a Great Blue Heron fascinating plus that it was interesting to have documented it in photos taken almost five years ago and again last month in the same location. So, is it the same Great Blue Heron? I’d like to think that it is.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unusually colored feathers of this Great Blue Heron that I photographed on September 24th of this year caught my eyes because it has some white feathers in its crown where normally all the feathers are dark black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,166,13594,26],"tags":[4004,4117,5080,3987,627,626,3456,3455,4094,2312,6834,313,4095,6835],"class_list":["post-54521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-great-blue-herons","category-leucistic","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-crown","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-leucism","tag-leucistic","tag-marsh","tag-molt","tag-strange-crown","tag-wading-birds","tag-wetlands","tag-white-feathers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-strange-crown-mia-mcpherson-7014.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ebn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131490,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/29\/subadult-green-heron-in-my-viewfinder\/","url_meta":{"origin":54521,"position":0},"title":"Subadult Green Heron In My Viewfinder","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning, I had a marvelous time with a subadult Green Heron in my viewfinder at Dockery Slough on the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Green Herons"","block_context":{"text":"Green Herons","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/wading-birds\/green-herons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Subadult Green Heron at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/green-heron-subadult-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-7166.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/green-heron-subadult-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-7166.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Heron on ice with ice, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-ice-mia-mcpherson-0516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-ice-mia-mcpherson-0516.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-ice-mia-mcpherson-0516.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-ice-mia-mcpherson-0516.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110398,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/20\/great-blue-heron-on-ice-small-in-frame\/","url_meta":{"origin":54521,"position":2},"title":"Great Blue Heron On Ice – Small In Frame","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I had the opportunity to photograph a Great Blue Heron on the ice at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, where the heron was small in the frame.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron and its winter shadow - Small in frame, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3071.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3071.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"March 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Little Blue Herons start off their lives with white plumage, then look piebald with blue and white fathers and finally look more \"blue\" as adults.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First year Little Blue Heron, Roosevelt Wetland, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/little-blue-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/little-blue-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4921.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/little-blue-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-4921.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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