[cobirds] white egrets

Folks,

Differentiating juvenile little blue heron from snowy egret in fall is fraught with peril. I mean, you could get it wrong and then what? I have been looking at Colorado's smallish, white egrets in fall and have noticed something. Birds being reported as juvi little blues show bill and lore characteristics of juvi little blue herons. When I look at SIbley's depiction of bill and lores of juvi little blue heron vs. snowy egret, I am not confident I could differentiate them based on those features. But observing birds and photos of birds reported as juvi little blue heron here in Colorado, I have noticed something... leg color.

Adult snowy egrets have dark (black) legs and yellow feet. Adult little blue herons have dull greenish-yellow legs and feet. Juvenile snowy egrets show a dark (black) front of legs and yellowish to greenish-yellow back of legs, basically two-tone. Juvi little blue heron legs are the same color as adult birds uniform, dull greenish-yellow. 

All of this fall's reports of juvi little blue herons I have observed, either in person or from photos have bi-colored legs. The front of the leg is dark, the back of the leg is yellow or pale. I am no expert in identifying juvi little blue heron, but I have scrutinized photos of these birds from Texas and they all seem to have uniform (front to back) dull yellow-green leg color. 

When observing these white egret-herons, make note of leg color, front and back. I THINK this could be helpful in identifying the correct species.

Glenn Walbek

Castle Rock, CO