Juvenile Heron-Alaska

Hello,

Found this youngster on a saltflat of a local river here in Sitka, Alaska.

Nice shot Bruce, good looking bird!

Is this a rare sighting for you? We had a heron up here (Anchorage) for around a week and caused quite a fuss. It was a very rare sighting for us. Nice shot by the way.

Nice catch, but what makes you think he's a juvie?

We have Herons here right up until the water freezes solid and they can no longer hunt. I've seen them standing on the ice, so it isn't cold that drives them South. If they can find food and the water isn't frozen, they might stay.

Hello.
Thanks for the nice comments and questions. We get them quite frequently here and often well into the winter. They seem to move regionally quite a bit as some watersheds will not have any one day and then 4-5 the next week during the same tides.
This bird was still a little mottled on the breast and had a darker bill than a couple of the larger birds. I just assumed he/she is not a mature bird. Not as young as this one though. They are neat birds.

Nice shot, looks like he's concentrating.

Good shot, Bruce. Had no idea they would go that far north.

That second bird doesn't look like one of our juvies. We have a rookerie here, so I have seen a lot of juvies, and ours aren't red at all. I have seen pics posted here of birds that look like that and it is a GBH, but I think it's showing genetic drift from the Eastern birds. All the juvies I have seen are greyer with streaks in the front, which this one also shows. I just didn't see the streaks in the front of the other bird. I still have a lot to learn about Herons though.

very nice shots, like #1 best

Hi,

Thanks again for you kind words. As far as regional differences and age of these birds I will admit to knowing nothing. I titled this juvenile as I thought the first one was a younger bird because of body size, mottled chest and a darker bill. I would love to know more about these guys. I was taking pictures of swans both times I took these. I know very little about either birds other than they are beautiful and very wary.

Bruce