bittern

[stuart wanuck]

nikon d 300 iso 400
m 1/250 @ 6.3
300 mm with 1.4x

[John Chardine]

Hi Stuart- This is a real rarity in our parts, and it's a listed species in Canada. Very secretive and hard to photograph so you did very well. I sometimes wonder if there is any substantive difference between a heron, bittern and egret. In this case, the Least Bittern looks more like a small heron, like a Green-backed Heron for example. Or maybe the Green-backed Heron is really a bittern? The big bitterns are just plain weird! Then you have the egrets.