NOTE TO ALL BIRDERS...I'd Rather B Birdin'/Bird D'Pot will be on holiday hiatus....this will be my last post and linking tool until after the Christmas Holiday. I will be busy, getting ready for company the week before and the week after. Everything will resume on January 2nd, 2016!! Hope to see y'all return with some exciting photos and beautiful birds. Happy Holidays, and happy birding!! This post and linking will remain active until I return to blogging.....so, if you have some more to share over the week of the 26th to the 2nd ---feel free to come back and add the new link!!!!
It's all dedicated to American Birding Association's 2015 Bird of the Year. The beautiful, oftentimes elusive, Little Green Heron....
- Can be found in nearly any aquatic habitat, but prefers small water bodies with both dense emergent vegetation and open water. From what I've witnessed they're usually alone, and silent hunters; one of the few species of animal known to use "tools" in the hunt for survival. In particular, they commonly use bread crusts, insects, or other items as bait. The bait is dropped onto the surface of a body of water in order to lure fish. When a fish takes the bait, the green heron will then grab and eat the fish. I've watched them eat small crabs, and fish; aquatic food. If anything these birds are nocturnal rather than diurnal, preferring to retreat to sheltered areas in daytime. Silent, tricky, hunters... they can be quite verbal during courtship and territorial disputes when rarely seen in groups. These small, compact, and colorful herons are seasonally monogamous. The pairs form in the breeding range, after an intense courtship display by the males, who select the nesting sites and fly in front of the female noisily and with puffed-up head and neck plumage.
At one time the Little Green Heron was named Green Backed Heron.
The Green Heron can be spotted in our part of Texas year 'round. I've had the opportunity to photograph them at so many various areas and surroundings throughout a 50 mile radius from the home front. From my folders, I chose 18 dedication images to represent the year 2015 in retrospect....
...and so ends the 2015 reign of the Little Green Heron. I'm anxious to find out what bird will be 2016 bird of the year!!!
LITTLE GREEN HERON
photos taken: in various areas around the Corpus Christi area such as Pollywog Ponds, Tule Lake, Oso Bay Wetlands, Blucher Park, Bazemore Park, Hans Suter Park, and around Port Aransas Texas' Leonabelle Turnbull Refuge, Paradise Pond
habitat range map: Green Heron
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