ramdolph
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Black Crowned Night Heron...blue? - 2005/11/09 08:42
Are Black-Crowned Night Herons ever blue where the black normally is?
This evening I was at an island rookery off the SC coast with a friend and amongst a multitude of Brown Pelicans, Tri-colored Herons and others were two Black-Crowned Night Herons. One of them was unmistakably blue where the black normally is. It was a dark blue but not super dark and in no way would be called black. The other bird was jet black where it's black was. The only other difference was that the blue bird's feet/legs seemed yellow where the black bird's feet seemed more orange.
My friend is a budding naturalist and between us we have several bird books; Sibley's, Kaufman's, Stokes...but I find no reference to the blue coloring. The birds were not far apart and we watched them for a half hour or more so it's not likely that it was "just the way the light was on them" or something like that.
Is this unheard of or common? Can we claim a new species and name it ourselves? Blue-Capped Night Heron...catchy, huh?
Thanks for any info,
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