Great Blue Heron - White Morph

darrell-f · May 14, 2008

When I first saw this bird I though it was a great egret, but then realized how big it was. It's actually a great blue heron, but all white. It's a white morph or great white heron. Taken at Viera Wetlands, Brevard County, FL.

310mm (with Canon 100-400mm); f/10; 1/800

Darrell-F

gluwater · May 14, 2008

That is a Great White Egret, not a White morph Great blue Heron. You can tell by the yellow beak and green lore.

darrell-f · May 14, 2008

Not sure, but legs indicated white morph
This bird was much larger than an egret. Also note the yellow legs. Herons have the yellow legs and egrets have black legs. This is the reason that I thought it was a white morph.

Darrell-f

Heron

Egret

gluwater · May 14, 2008

I'm still not sure. You are correct about the legs but the bill still looks wrong to me and there should be a plume on the head. Even though the White morph has a yellow bill it does not, to the best of my knowledge, have a green lore.

Jim T · May 14, 2008

according to Sibley this most closely matches the white morph, the legs are buffy and the bill is not curved down like a great egret.

Nice capture which ever one it is!

dbaker1221 · May 14, 2008

White morph Sandhill!!!!

no??

gret capture

jonh68 · May 14, 2008

This will be a little confusing, but it's my understanding of the situation.

The great white egret is the white morph of the GBH. In North America, specifically Florida, it is called the GWE because it is the largest white egret in north america.

The Great Egret, GE, is called a great white egret everywhere in the world except NA as it is the largest white egret on those continents.

The white morph gets the title GWE in NA, but the Great Egret gets the title everywhere else as being GWE. The GWE, the morph, is only found in FL. The North American that has the title "great egret" is found worldwide and is called GWE.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Great_Egret.html

PrescottPhotog · May 14, 2008

darrell-f wrote:

When I first saw this bird I though it was a great egret, but then realized how big it was. It's actually a great blue heron, but all white. It's a white morph or great white heron. Taken at Viera Wetlands, Brevard County, FL.

Interesting.. Ya learn something new every day..

Maestro · May 14, 2008

I agree with Darrel. It's a Great White Egret or white morph. They only live in Florida. I can even so faintly see the neck plumage that extends down to the chest as it is on a GBH. Nice image of a rare variant.

raptorcaptor · May 14, 2008

Cool capture either way!

davidweaver · May 15, 2008

Bump on the capture.

This is an egret.

Cheers!

Maestro · May 15, 2008

davidweaver wrote:

Bump on the capture.

This is an egret.

Cheers!

Actually, and I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but Darrel is correct. It is the rare white morph. Scroll down and you can see a pic of the GBH white morph version.

darrell-f · May 16, 2008

I learned something more about herons

After a good bit of researching on the internet and the responses here, I'm now confident that this bird is the White Morph of the Great Blue Heron and quite rare. I even went back to search for him to try get more pictures that might show a head plume or shaggy neck plume. I found him again, but could not get close enough for photographs.

The most concise reference that I found is the Internet Field Guide to Birds. There are good pictures and a confirmation that the yellowish legs are a distinguishing characteristic of the White Morph of the Great Blue Heron.

Spidey · May 16, 2008

Darrel,
I have to agree with your assessment. If this were a Great Egret the legs would be black. Another name for this Heron is the Wurdemann's Heron.

Nice find. This one is obviously an immature Heron lacking the ornate plumes on the back of the head.

SunGlo · May 16, 2008

darrell-f wrote:

After a good bit of researching on the internet and the responses here, I'm now confident that this bird is the White Morph of the Great Blue Heron and quite rare. I even went back to search for him to try get more pictures that might show a head plume or shaggy neck plume. I found him again, but could not get close enough for photographs.

The most concise reference that I found is the Internet Field Guide to Birds. There are good pictures and a confirmation that the yellowish legs are a distinguishing characteristic of the White Morph of the Great Blue Heron.

Darrell,

Your research and conclusions are right on the money. Field Guide to Birds by Donald and Lillian Stokes has an excellent picture of the white morph. Other than the legs appearing somewhat more orange, it matches your image. They state it is considered rare and is only seen in south Florida.

You have me looking back through my thousands of egret images. I'm wondering if I've seen one and inadvertently wrote it off as another great egret.

Thanks for the awakening...GREAT CATCH!!!

Have fun,

Phil

Ric Grupe · May 16, 2008

Outstanding capture and correct ID!

jwear · May 16, 2008

I would not be sure --the green above the bill = egret the lak of the top feathers [the 2 top not feathers ] also makes me wonder ?? the legs are the only thing in this photo that do not make me 100% egret

SunGlo · May 16, 2008

jwear wrote:

I would not be sure --the green above the bill = egret the lak of the top feathers [the 2 top not feathers ] also makes me wonder ?? the legs are the only thing in this photo that do not make me 100% egret

Jeff,

The white morph has that same blue-gray coloring above the bill and near the eyes that normal bird has which might be what we're seeing as a greenish color in Darrell's shot. Also, from what I've read, the white morph only has one feather that extends from just above the eyes to the back of the neck. It's hard to tell if it is there or not in Darrell's shot because of the wind.

At any rate, it certainly doesn't look like your average great egret and Darrell did a great job of stirring our interest.

Have fun,

Phil

jwear · May 16, 2008

Phil I had to do some looking --looks like the whitey only has 1 big blue 2 [that was a guess on my part]so lets say white balance and wind

a morph

The shot did get me to do more research I have not heard of the gbh morph before

SunGlo · May 16, 2008

jwear wrote:

Phil I had to do some looking --looks like the whitey only has 1 big blue 2 [that was a guess on my part]so lets say white balance and wind a morph The shot did get me to do more research I have not heard of the gbh morph before

I hate to admit this, but I live in southwest Florida and I never heard of the white morph before Darrell's post. Like I said, I'm now in the process of going through all my great egret shots to see if I have a morph in my archives.

I ran into the same issue with an immature little blue heron which are also white. It's very easy to mistake them for a snowy egret until you do a quick look at the feet. Just to muddy the waters even more, there's a white morph reddish egret...UGH! Twenty minutes shooting birds, three days trying to figure out what you shot...

Have fun,

Phil

Harryb · May 17, 2008

Looks like a morph to me, good catch.

DigitalRaptor · November 20, 2008

Great White Heron
I saw this thread and since I took a picture of an actual Great White Heron I wanted to share. I took this pictures in the Keys last year.

dlplumer · November 20, 2008

One thing we can all agree on: It is definitely Knotaloon

Geo-mc · January 20, 2009

Great Blue Heron - white morph
I took this picture at Aransas State Park, TX while on a photo trip aboard The Skimmer

Maestro · January 20, 2009

Hey, Geo-Mc, that is indeed our Texas version. It is definitely a white morph but with black legs. The thick beak, the long tuft of feathers on top and the general body all show this to be a great blue heron white morph. They are rare for Texas but not unheard of. I had originally thought this morph was only in Florida, but obviously that is wrong.

I photographed this morph on Sunday aboard a different charter.

Edit: Did you see the whoopers too?

RandySmugMug · August 6, 2011

Great Blue Heron - White Morph

Comments