On my visit this week to the rookery at Gatorland in Orlando Florida, only the Great Egrets were even thinking about getting down to nesting. The males were in breeding plumage and there were already a few females on the nest. And, of course, the males were displaying, as they do when courting. There is a whole routine of bowing and stretching, posing and posturing, all accompanied by a conspicuous display of the fine breeding plumes flying that, in the 1800s, brought these birds close to extension. They were fashionable on ladies hats. Fortunately those who thought they looked better on the living birds prevailed in the end, and from an informal count from moving trains crossing the US and back a few years ago, I might guess that the Great Egret is one of the most abundant species in North America. They are certainly everywhere there is water to wade in and frogs and little fish to catch.

I was particularly struck by the turquoise color of lores in a few of the males at Gatorland, including the one pictured here. I have seen Egrets in full breeding with bright green lores, but never the turquoise. Perhaps it is an intermediate color on the way to becoming the lime green I have seen in other birds…though I do find references in a casual search on Google this morning to both green and blue lores in breeding plumage. Anyone have more information on this?

Canon SX50HS. -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 520mm equivalent field of view. ISO 125 @ 1/1000th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.