Wednesday 21 August 2013

Wild Bird Wednesday 58 - White Faced Heron

Dawn at Werribee, Victoria
White-Faced Herons are a common bird of the wetlands in my part of the world.  They are my 'default heron' - meaning its the one that I think of most often if I hear the word heron.

Park ponds, road-side drains, wet pastures, the coast and sewage farms are good places to find this bird.

The white-faced heron - Egretta novaehollandiae - is a bird that lives up to its name in many ways.  Most simply it has a white face, making it generally easy to identify.  "Novaehollandiae" comes from the old name for Australia - New Holland - and Australia is the base for this species.

But like many Australians it does not mind a bit a travel and since it was named it as established itself in New Zealand and has expended into Papua New Guinea.

Its a reliably active bird, being rather more mobile that some of its relatives.

Halls Gap, Grampians, Victoria

Point Lonsdale, Victoria, Australia

Point Lonsdale, Victoria, Australia
Magnetic Island, Queensland,  Australia
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Over to you!

47 comments:

  1. a most beautiful heron! very striking!

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  2. What a handsome heron ... again another bird I wasn't aware of. He seems a bit shorter than our Great Blue Herons and it is hard to get a handle on his actual size. Maybe you could fill me in on that too :) Thanks, Stewart ...

    Andrea @ From The Sol

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  3. It is a really smart looking heron Stewart but then I can't think of a heron or an egret that isn't good looking.You took some good shots there.

    I still think "Jaws" was a good guess but bow to your superior literary knowledge.

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  4. What a gorgeous bird! Love the color combination. Your first photo is beautiful!

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  5. Wonderful captures. They do stand still for pics. :)

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  6. soooo nice photos of the Heron lovley grey colour .Have a nice day ,nette

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  7. What a beautiful heron! I like the dawn silhouette shot too.

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  8. Beautiful heron and lovely pictures. My default heron is the Great Blue ... and that's an interesting concept. I often see several other kinds of herons as well (not your beautiful one of course) but, yes, if I just see the word 'heron' I have one certain picture in mind. Was it the first one we ever saw maybe?

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  9. Handsome fellow!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  10. Great photos and very interesting to see your photos of this bird taken in so many different places.

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  11. It's beautiful!!! Such a great species Stewart.

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  12. Very distinctive facial markings. Excellent series Stewart.

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  13. Stewart, your white-faced heron is a gorgeous bird. It seem just as common there as the Great Blue Heron is here. Wonderful photos, thanks for hosting. Have a happy week!

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  14. Oh, I do not ever remember seeing images of a White Faced Heron before and what a grand looking bird. Thank you for sharing the beauty Stewart and have a great remainder to your week~

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  15. What a beautiful Heron bird Stewart!!
    Great captures!!
    Dimi...

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  16. Do you think this one has an edge when it comes to gracefulness? Seems so to me but haven't seen a heron for a long time. Lovely blue-grey coloring.

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  17. Hi Stewart Yes the WF Heron is a very distinguished bird and these shots are very good. Off to take Charlie for a walk!

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  18. One of my favourite birds and your photos definitely did it justice!

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  19. That is such a beautiful bird!!

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  20. enjoyed your lovely herons today Stewart; one of my favourites but they often very timid and want to take off

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  21. Beautiful pictures of herons, Stewart.
    Very sharp and with many details, compliments.
    Greetings Irma

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  22. Nice run down on our elegant white-faced heron. I snapped one today also, perched on a neighbours TV arial.

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  23. Beautiful photos of the heron.

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  24. What a pretty face!!! Great shots Stewart!

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  25. Beautiful shots of the heron. They are an attractive bird and we get them a lot on our dam - also pinching fish from the fishpond.

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  26. I love herons. I have only seen a handful in person though. The white-faced heron looks beautiful!!

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  27. Great images, Stewart! They are quite elegant birds.
    I see a lot of White-faced Herons up here, along with Intermediate & Great Egrets.

    I would never have guessed your literary question.

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  28. These are great pictures. Call it luck or coincident but we also posted a new post about birds Birding and Much More at Bharatpur

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  29. I always love to see herons. We stumbled across a rookery once. The sound was so odd. Until we looked up!

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  30. Stewart, I love the silhouette image and the 2nd photo where you can see its beautiful facial markings.

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  31. Thanks for the beautiful photo gallery and weekly link up. I am going to make it a goal to get a photgraph worthy to link up in the next few weeks. Following you now too. :)

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  32. I cannot believe that there are so many different Herons. When I here the word Heron I just think of the Great Blue because they are as common as Robins here---which means they are everywhere. Neat pics. MB

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  33. Hi Stewart,
    The default heron in my part of the world is the Great Blue Heron. I've never seen a White Faced Heron so I found your post very interesting and the photographs just excellent.

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  34. Great capture heron, best regard from Belgium

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  35. Very beautiful Heron. I really like the white face.

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  36. Wonderful bird!

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  37. Your heron photos are awesome! I wish I would have had one of my zoom lenses on my day out on the lake. I was a little afraid of getting them wet!

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  38. I love the Herons. It seems they have more patience than I do when fishing, but they are also more successful!

    Superb photographs, Stewart!

    Is it mid-week already??

    Cheers.

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  39. What a pretty heron Stewart. I have only seen the grey ones we have here, they are such a graceful bird when they are fishing.

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  40. A smart Heron you have here Stewart. I guess by the looks of it, it is smaller than the UK default Heron.... The Grey.

    I was lucky enough to see the Goliath Heron a few weeks ago in Sth Africa

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  41. Great photographs of a beautiful bird!

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  42. Such beautiful bird Stewart!!!
    Exellent shots!!!Hope you're much better now!!!
    Dimi...

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  43. Nice photos! I really do like seeing these guys, no matter which type they are.

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