Purple Gallinule grows up

This buff-colored juvenile Purple Gallinule with the wet head feathers is enjoying his freshwater environment of pickerelweed and other aquatic vegetation. He’s just beginning to show the Purple Gallinule‘s characteristic blue shield above his beak, and a faint bluish hue is beginning to appear in his wing feathers. Before long our young bird will begin […]

BBW Duckling time~!

It’s summer in Florida, time for those adorable Black-bellied Whistling Ducklings. Last month I spotted the little fellows above huddling close to Mom (or Dad?) as s/he herded them toward the water. Last week we encountered lots of noisy adult Black-bellied Whistling Ducks circling loudly overhead, and hovering like sentinels as they landed on the […]

Same Night Herons or not??

We have both Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and Black-crowned Night Herons in our wetlands. These first two photos below show an adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron (l.) and a Black-crowned Night Heron (r.). These Night Herons look quite distinctly different from one another as adults, as can be seen. The juveniles below, however, look much more similar […]