View this post on Instagram

Just a couple of teenagers hanging out around the pond. Here is a White Ibis on the left and a Little Blue Heron on the right. I photographed them last week at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. They hunted together for about 10 minutes, never more than a few feet apart from one another. You may be asking why this particular bird is called a “little blue heron” when he’s clearly not blue. The color doesn’t fit does it? Well the reason is that this is actually a juvenile Little Blue Heron. The young ones are dressed entirely in white plumage during their first year, often showing splotches of gray-blue by their first spring The White Ibis? He’s brown. That makes no sense lol! Thats because this is a juvenile White Ibis. He’s covered in a mottled brown and tan feather pattern. From a distance it’s easy to mistake a juvenile White Ibis like this little one for a Glossy Ibis. The main thing to look for is that a Glossy Ibis lacks the white patch on the back (best seen during flight) and belly is entirely dark colored, not white or patchy tan. Swipe through the last two photos to see the adult White Ibis and an adult Glossy Ibis for comparison 🙂 Adult White Ibis’s are white birds with pink bills and legs. They’ve got Carolina Blue eyes and black tips on their wing feathers. While viewing from far away or in poor lighting conditions, the adult Glossy Ibis appears to be dressed in all black but if your able to get a closer look at one, you’ll see that they are actually a beautiful reddish-brown color with shiny iridescent bottle-green wings. Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the fabulous full frame SLR, the @canonusa #5Ds

A post shared by Bird Watching N.C. (@birdwatching_nc) on Aug 27, 2020 at 10:41am PDT