Ok, I admit it: there is no such species of bird as the Great Horned Heron.
However, ornithologists have a habit of suggesting that a species is horned when it sports tufts of feathers on the head. They have done this with the Horned Grebe, Horned Lark, and Great Horned Owl.
Yesterday, as I watched the wind lift the feathers on the crown of a Great Blue Heron, I thought: what whimsey to pass the picture off as the rarely seen Great Horned Heron of Kootenay Lake.
Here is the inspiration for that thought.
Your Great Horned Heron is a classic. Love those feathers in the wind!
His cousin in Kelowna walked slowly on his (her?) long toes from Fascieux Creek up to our lawn at dusk today. Checking out the flock of quail? I’ve just read that in a pinch, heron will feast on other birds. Whatever will get them through the winter …..
Simply looks like a heron having another one of those bad hair days to me… The fish guts
gel can be awfully awkward to contend with… I sympathize!
One of the things that makes the heron so photographically interesting to me is its variability: its positions are as changeable as those of a contortionist; its feathers as chaotic as those of an unkempt curmudgeon. Unlike, say, a waxwing, this is not a prissy, well coiffured bird.