{"id":7015,"date":"2013-01-04T05:34:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T12:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7015"},"modified":"2026-10-30T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T20:39:15","slug":"two-great-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/04\/two-great-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Great Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Breeding\u00a0Breeding plumage lores in a American Egret – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 160mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

These two “Great” images were taken two minutes apart of two different “Great” wading birds in Florida. The first one I photographed was this Great<\/del> American Egret that was going into breeding plumage, those lores were pretty green but they get greener during the height of mating season.<\/p>\n

Notice that I was only at 160mm, this bird walked up very close to me. That bill looked dangerously close, glad I don’t look like any of this bird’s prey.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"LovelyLovely Great Blue Heron – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This Great Blue Heron was going out of breeding plumage, notice that the lores are a dull gray with a slight blue tint to them, during mating season the lores are a dark blue.<\/p>\n

They are “Great” birds!<\/p>\n

See below to learn how the word “Great” is now a moot point in this post.\u00a0<\/em><\/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. Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Great<\/del> American Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: Great Egrets were renamed American Egrets in October 2026, the scientific name was changed to Ardea egretta<\/em>. This post has been updated to reflect those changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These two “Great” images were taken two minutes apart of two different “Great” wading birds in Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[362,25,166,2000],"tags":[4004,363,4272,4117,4021,4142,5229,5132,743,351,3987,1034,627,626,4046,313],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-egrets","category-florida","category-great-blue-herons","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-american-egret","tag-ardea-egretta","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-bird-photography","tag-close-up","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-headshot","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-portrait","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t