{"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":"2025-09-01T12:19:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T17:19:50","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\u00a0Great Egret Portrait – 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 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

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 Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,166,362,2000],"tags":[4004,4272,4117,4021,4142,5229,5132,743,351,3987,363,1034,627,626,4046,313],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","category-great-blue-herons","category-great-egrets","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-ardea-alba","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-bird-photography","tag-close-up","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-great-egret","tag-headshot","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-portrait","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-breeding-mia-mcpherson-8131.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1P9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18637,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/18\/great-egrets-big-white-wading-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":7015,"position":0},"title":"Great Egrets – Big White Wading Birds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"After posting Great Blue Heron images yesterday I decided to post images of Great Egrets which are also a large wading bird species this morning.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Egret in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.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-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":48420,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/09\/11\/wading-birds-at-bear-river-mbr-yesterday\/","url_meta":{"origin":7015,"position":1},"title":"Wading Birds At Bear River MBR Yesterday","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I had fun photographing the juvenile Great Blue Heron, juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron and the adult Snowy Egret yesterday at Bear River MBR. I especially loved the clearer skies.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flying juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron with Promontory Mountains in the distance, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-in-a-tree-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-in-a-tree-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-in-a-tree-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-in-a-tree-mia-mcpherson-7811.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10892,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/20\/a-great-blue-herons-reaction-to-a-great-egrets-intrusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":7015,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Heron’s Reaction to a Great Egret’s Intrusion","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in March of 2009 while I was photographing a Great Blue Heron on the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park in Florida a Great Egret flew in and walked close to the Great Blue Heron and me.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Squawking Great Blue Heron, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The day before the recent holiday, I was happy to take a close up photo of a foraging Great Egret at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge from the road.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foraging Great Egret close up at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/great-egret-close-up-ok-mia-mcpherson-1298.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/great-egret-close-up-ok-mia-mcpherson-1298.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/great-egret-close-up-ok-mia-mcpherson-1298.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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