Great White Heron

[Jeroen Stel]

Hi Guys,

Had a business appointment in Amsterdam today and decided to make a detour and visit nature reserve the Oostvaarders Plassen for about an hour or so to see if i could get some nice shots of birds despite of the grey weather.
Had a blast with this lovely Great White Heron who was fouraging in front of the hide!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Canon Eos 1D Mark3
Shutter speed: 1/400 sec
Aperture: F 11
Exposure mode: AV
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash:no
Flash exposure compensation: -
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: AI Focus
ISO: 640
Lens: Canon 600mm F4
Focal length:600 mm
AF mode: Auto Focus
On beanbag from hide
Levels/Curves/USM/Contrast/Saturation/Noise Ninja/Lab-Sharpening

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Great soft light,timing and nice reflection!!!

[Jeff Nadler]

I love th bird but feel the reflection is too obscure to be effective and would prefer the bird in a lower third position within the frame.

[Arthur Morris]

I like it and am fine with the reflection though I would not mind a tighter version. Is this a white morph Grey Heron???

later and love, artie

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

I like this jeroen. Its a Great White Egret (Egretta Alba)

[Jeroen Stel]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your comments so far!
We call this species Great White Heron over here and the Latin name is Casmerodius albus albus. There has been some discussion as in some countries this is called Egretta Alba but recent discoveries show that this species is more related to the "Ardea" family then to the "Egretta" family. Therefor i would go for the Great White Heron description instead of the Great White Egret discription. I think the American relative of this species is Ardea alba. But if i do a search on Google myself....i think they are all the same family....

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Jeroen,

Over here we have Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) which greatly resembles your Grey Heron. Our Great Blue has a white morph the somewhat resemebles the bird in this post, esp. the thick light yellow upper legs. Our Great White Heron (the common name for the white morph or Ardea herodias) has a thick heavy bill. Hard to tell about bill thickness in your image with bill open. Below is an image of the bird I am referring to.

later and love, artie

[Jeroen Stel]

Hi Arthur,

Thank you for your explenation on the American species you have over there!
I did not know there was a white morph of the Great Blue Heron...very interesting!

I think my post is more likely what you guys would call a Great White Egret as the bill is more slender, and the green colour in front of it's eyes is different from that of the white morph Great Blue. Also the long feathers on the back are more like that of the Great White Egret then that of the white morph Great Blue.

It's very interesting to see how some of these species relate across borders!

Thanks again Arthur!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

Jeroen I think we are talking the same bird have a look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Egret

[Jeroen Stel]

Thanks for the Wikipedia link Peregrine!
That made things a whole lot clearer!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel