Great Blue Heron, The Other Side

Great Blue Heron there other side.

Zip

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nice shot... five bucks says he aint the brightest bird in the flock...

He was razzing you!

That is one unusual shot...wow!!

He's badly injured.

The pouch under his beak is ripped open and his tongue is hanging out the rip.

I doubt he can eat. He will starve soon.

lon10c, he had no problem eating and I can say he lived all summer and seemed to be doing well. Below is a picture of him fishing in his favorite spot. Sorry about the quality of the photo it was taken through a chain link fence.

Zip

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Zip.. I'm glad to hear he's surviving..

I have to admit I did not realize the injury when I first replied,. my mind let me assume it was just waggeling it's tongue.. and yet clearly as Ion points out,.. the tongue is not coming out where it should.

Obviously this can not heal "normally" (ie: the hole will be there allways) .. but if it didn't get infected who knows how long he'll last. ?

Looking at the size of the fish in the second image,. I have some theories on the source of the wound!

Thanks for sharing these.

That first image is a great capture, certainly sounds like the bird is doing well at least and seems to have no trouble with feeding. Amazing.

Yea Zip, glad to hear your bird is making do.

all summer and no rescue to help fix that problem...oh well nature can be tough. hopes he's still doing well.

He was at Montezuma NWR seen by hundreds of people and will most likely be there again this year. So go rescue him if you like. Personally if the injure wasn't man made, man has no right to interfere. To each his own.

Zip

Could be a lot of stuff that caused it.. including a fight.

If he is wintering over in NY State.. he has a LOT in common with "Big Blue".. my own local bachelor that has not bothered with the seasonal migration and mating that other GBHs participate in.

The specific GBH that I frequently photograph at a nearby park is a year round resident (despite the fact that the local authority on the subject claims they can't survive the winter here,. this fellow has for at least the last three... partly because he raids peoples backyard koi ponds and empties them of fish in short notice.. )

He has a few "distiguishing marks" as well.. one in particular quite noticeable even from a distance.. some damage was done to his neck.. and though "healed" the feathers remain a bit out of whack in this location... so he is easily identifiable from the other seasonal visitors.

He's very territorial (don't really know it's a "he" of course) and has in fact killed at least one other smaller (younger) GBH this past summer... the same encounter that got him his neck wound.

So my suspicion based on these observations is that they are perfectly likely to do harm to eachother.

Saw a photo on the FM site of a GBH fighting with an Eagle of all things and the GBH seemed to be holding it's own.

I have photos of a GBH fighting with a Great Egret. Also have photos of a GBH eating little Moorhen chicks. I couldn't believe my eyes the GBH speared the little bird with his beak, flipped it in the air and swallowed it whole.

The birds are impressive with a 6 ft wingspan. When they stand upright with their neck streched out they are nearly 5ft tall.

A beautiful capture.

We don't get up to Montezuma NWR in the late fall or winter. So i'm not sure if he goes south or not. We do have a couple of residents GBH that also stick around all winter.

As for his injure. My guess it was caused by fighting with other GBH. He has the best fishing spot up there and he intends on keeping it. Looking forward to seeing if he made through the winter.

Zip