Learning About Birds . . . Great Egret

It's been quite a while since I've done a Learning About Birds post so after seeing the green lores on this Great Egret shot I took at Springbrook the other day I thought it might be cool to show the difference. Here are a couple neat facts about these birds.


- The longevity record for a wild Great Egret is nearly 23 years.
- Aggression among nestlings is common and large chicks frequently kill their smaller siblings.
- In high breeding, the bill becomes orange-yellow and the lores become lime-green. (Lore, region between the eye and bill on the side of a bird's head.)

Here you can see the green lores:



For comparison sake, here is a shot of Great Egret taken down in Florida a few years back. You can see that the lores are not green in this shot:







If you are interested, here is a link to all my posts on "Learning About Birds".