Several Octobers ago I had the opportunity to do some bird photography along Florida's Gulf Coast on Lido Key in Sarasota County.
Not what comes to mind when I think of beach birds, rock pigeons are often under-appreciated when it comes to pretty birds unless they are seen in bright sunlight at the right angle as can be seen in this photograph.
Known variously as common pigeons or rock doves, Columba livia is a common bird of rocky cliffs, farms, towns and cities practically world-wide and can have highly variable plumage that is frequently a light gray body with darker coloring on the head, neck and tail and two black bands on the wings and across the tip of the tail.
A more traditional beach bird even if not our most numerous is the black-bellied plover. Absent from Florida during the summer breeding season, they can sometimes be seen in their namesake plumage just before heading north.
Black-bellied are our largest plovers and all ages and sexes have black armpits visible in flight. Breeding males have a black face, neck and belly and are white on the crown, nape and undertail. The back, wings and down the tail is white and black speckled. Females are similar in breeding season, but muted with less contrast. Non-breeding birds as seen here have brownish mottling on the back and are pale underneath, sometimes smudgy. Juveniles are more crisply black and white above with a streaked breast. ALl have thick stubby black bills and dark legs.
I have often seen snowy egrets feeding in the surf.
Egretta thula is a medium-sized egret that is always all-white with distinctive feet that are greenish-yellow much of the year and becoming more orange-yellow during breeding season when they also display long whispy feathers on their heads, necks and backs. Legs are black, with various amounts of yellow in younger birds. Adults have a long slender black bill with a yellow patch from the base of the bill to the eye.
Great blue herons are the largest heron in North America, and while they are most frequently seen along freshwater lakes, rivers and streams or in estuaries, like this juvenile they can also be seen on Florida beaches.
Standing about four feet tall with a wingspan of six feet, the body is mostly blue-gray. The head is white with a black stripe and short black plumes. The bill is long, thick and mostly yellow, juveniles having a dark upper bill. Legs are long, dull yellow to slaty-black, with rusty thighs. The front of the neck is striped black and white and the shoulder is black, with a bit of rusty coloring.
Of the herons and egrets I see reddish egrets less often than all the others, so it was a treat to see several during this outing. First was an immature bird standing on a line of rocks leading down the beach.
These 1st year (above) reddish egrets have a dark bill and are overall a pale chalky or ashy copper color. Second year (below) birds are starting to display a reddish neck and head and the bill begins geting lighter near the base. Adult beeding birds have bills that are two-toned, pink towards the base with a black tip. And the red plumage gets a bit wispy.
These egrets are well-known for their animated feeding style where they spread their wings, creating shade on the water to make the fish more visible and often jumping up in the air while doing this.
A selection of these and other bird photographs can be purchased online at paul-rebmann.pixels.com/collections/birds.
I hope that you enjoyed this brief look at these birds at a Florida beach.
Clicking on any of the links above will take you to the Wild Florida Photo page for that species where you can find more photos of and information about that subject. Clicking on the images will take you to pixels.com where you can purchase that image in many sizes & formats and on various products.
Paul Rebmann
October 14, 2024
