Egrets and Heron of Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge

The Egrets and Herons page contains 75 images of Black-Crowned Night Herons, Green Herons,
Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, including a spectacular ‘dip-fishing’ hunting
sequence of a Snowy Egret, unique in my experience, taken at the Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.
Some supporting images from other locations are included to add content, context and detail.

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Egrets & Herons

Black-Crowned Night Heron

The most widespread heron in the world, the Black-Crowned Night Heron is a stocky
fellow with a short neck and legs that feeds mostly at night (thus the name), in areas that
are hunted by other herons and egrets during the day. They can take some amazingly large
fish for their size. They have bright red eyes as adults (the juveniles have amber eyes that turn
red before they become adults). Adults have black crowns and backs with white faces and
breasts, and the juveniles are streaked brown and grayish-white all over their bodies.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Alpha Male 4859

This fellow seemed to be the King Heron at the LA Arboretum,
and had a radically different appearance than the other Herons,
with a much longer head and a deeper crest than his colleagues.

Black-Crowned Night Heron 0875

My favorite portrait of a Black-Crowned Night Heron, watching
over Baldwin Lake at the LA Arboretum from a shaded rock.

Close portraits of Black-Crowned Night Herons are difficult to get at
Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge in my experience, so I have augmented
this page with several portraits like this taken at the LA Arboretum.

Black-Crowned Night Heron X1569

Black-Crowned Night Heron X1572

A Black-Crowned Night Heron poses for front and back views in front of the reeds beside
the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge, one of the rare opportunities for a close portrait there.

Black-Crowned Night Heron HS0856

Black-Crowned Night Heron HS0852

A Black-Crowned Night Heron perched on a branch. I love the comical look of long-beaked birds head-on.

Black-Crowned Night Heron 4778

A Black-Crowned Night Heron scans for prey in Baldwin Lake at the LA Arboretum in November.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Swimming 0845

In my experience, it is rare to see Night Herons swimming in the middle of the day.
They most often are found roosting or they are perched near the edge of the water.

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Black-Crowned Night Heron Portrait X8142

A detail crop of a Black-Crowned Night Heron portrait.
(the original image shows the bird from the center wing up)

There are two versions of the original image available:
a 4:5 aspect ratio XL head and chest portrait crop,
and the original 3:2 ratio SXL landscape image.

Black-Crowned Night Heron X8409

A Black-Crowned Night Heron in what many photographers call a “bird on a stick” shot.

Black-Crowned Night Heron X8443

A Black-Crowned Night Heron perches on a branch in front of a dark background (a difficult exposure).

Black-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile 1109

A juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron at the LA Arboretum
seems to be startled by the sight and sound of the camera.

It was quite likely the very first big lens he had ever encountered.
The front element of the 300mm f/2.8 is about the size of a bread plate.
I am sure it looked pretty spectacular to this little guy from about 8 feet away.

This juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron is getting ready to molt into adult plumage. Note the red eyes.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile 0806

I almost never use a flash for nature shots, but this guy
was standing in deep shadow. It was either flash or no shot.
This is another juvenile who is preparing to molt into adult plumage.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile HS0379

This is a younger juvenile (note the amber eyes). He stands out
against the background, which has been completely defocused.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile 0758

A beautiful scene of a late juvenile growing his first mating plumes.

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Black-Crowned Night Heron Flight X0126

A Black-Crowned Night Heron in flight, taken from the same level as the bird.
A BCN Heron flight shot from this angle is absolutely unique in my experience.
Notice how the Heron has its neck retracted to create an aerodynamic shape.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Landing on Mallard X0177

In my experience it is rare to see Black-Crowned Night Herons in flight.
This one seems to be landing on top of a Mallard (don’t worry... it missed).

BCN HeronÂ Landing on Mallard X0178

The Heron landed between the Mallard and the bank.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Flight 1145

A rare BCN Heron flight shot from almost directly below.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS6924

A head-on flight shot of a Black-Crowned Night Heron at sunset, taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.
Night Herons fly rapidly, and getting a head-on flight shot is every bit as difficult as it is with Cormorants.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS6925

As previously mentioned, it is quite rare to see a Black-Crowned Night Heron in daylight flight.
The two images above and several images below show a Night Heron in flight at sunset, taken at
Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge in January, just as the lowering sun was settling down on the horizon.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile Flight X5667

A juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron takes flight in the waning light after sunset at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

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Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS6936

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS6937

The two images above and the two below are from Flight Study composites which were taken 10 minutes apart.
The consecutive images above were taken with the sun just above the horizon. 1/8 second separates the images.
The two below are the first and last images in Flight Study 2 (XL), taken 0.4 sec. apart with the sun on the horizon.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS7125

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight HS7128

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight Study XL

A 2000 x 570 version of the XL Flight Study Composite (5000 x 1325) showing
a Black-Crowned Night Heron in flight at sunset over Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

This flight study composite shows four different wing positions, taken as the
long rays of the lowering sun painted the Heron in a beautiful reddish-gold light.
There is also a six image, SXL version of this flight study available (7500 x 1725).

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight Study 2 XL

A 2000 x 570 version of the XL Flight Study 2 Composite (5000 x 1325) showing
the Black-Crowned Night Heron in flight at sunset over Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

The images for this composite were taken 10 minutes later, with the sun on the horizon.
Due to the lower light, I pushed the exposure to bring out wing detail, thus the lighter sky.

Black-Crowned Night Heron Sunset Flight Study 2 XXL

A 3000 x 630 version of the XXL Flight Study Composite (10000 x 1925) showing
the Black-Crowned Night Heron in flight at sunset over Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

Considering how unusual it is to see a Black-Crowned Night Heron in flight during the day, those
of us who witnessed this looked at each other in awe, realizing we had seen something special.

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Green Heron

A small heron about the size of the Night Herons, the Green Heron occupies
much the same sort of niche, but is very skittish and hard to get close to without
quite a bit of stealth. They often keep their neck pulled in tight to their body, making
them look very stocky. They have a greenish-black crown, back and wings, a
chestnut brown breast with a white vertical stripe, and yellow eyes with
a white streak below the eyes and bill. A beautifully colored bird.

Green Heron 0283

Green Heron 0294

This fellow was so busy hunting in the marsh at Balboa Lake near Sepulveda Refuge that he did not notice my approach.

Normally, the Green Herons I have encountered are difficult to approach closely. They fly when you get anywhere inside about 100 feet, and since they are small, it is rare to get a good shot with fine detail. This was a rare close profile shot yielding the most detail of the Green Heron I have taken.

Green Heron 1545

A Green Heron in the reeds at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge, taken from across the pond just before sunset.

Great Blue Heron

The largest North American heron, the Great Blue is in my experience a skittish bird
that flies the moment it sees you, although those in Southern Florida are far more used to
the presence of people. They occupy wetland areas, marshes, swamps and shorelines and
are prolific hunters of fish, although they also eat insects, rodents, amphibians and small birds.
They are blue-gray, with a dark gray to black streak on either side of the crown stripe, which
is gray to white. They have a streaked breast and neck and a light gray face, a very heavy
yellow bill with a straight upper edge, and long dark-gray legs. Mature birds grow long
plumes at the base of their neck and on the lower back in the breeding season.

They can be very challenging to shoot anywhere but in Florida, as they fly
the moment they see you. This results in a lot of shots of the rear end of flying
herons... you learn to move in on them very slowly and sometimes you can cultivate
a friendship of sorts with individuals over a period of time to the point where they trust you.
Of course, with a long lens you can stay outside of their large fear radius and get a shot easily,
but to get highly detailed images of wild birds from close range requires stealth and patience.

Great Blue Heron Sunrise 1182

A Great Blue Heron in the golden light at sunrise off Sanibel Island, Florida.

A very rare (in my experience) frontal portrait taken at sunrise. I took several
shots while moving in slowly, and he just let me keep coming in. Amazing.
Of course, this was taken with a 500mm lens from about 25 to 30 feet.
Still, that is far inside of the fear radius of birds I had seen in the past.

Great Blue Flasher X0466

Great Blue Flasher X0475 M

A Great Blue Heron and a group of Red-Eared Sliders.

Check out the look on the face of the Great Blue Heron shown on the left (Great Blue Flasher X0466). Absolutely priceless.

These images were taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge on a hot afternoon in March. The bird was actually trying to cool off, letting a little breeze in, but you know what this looks like. The look on his face certainly completes the illusion.

Great Blue Flasher X0530

I thought this situation would be perfect for a telephoto-scenic wildlife shot. Comedy and beauty.

As the Great Blue Herons at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge are generally seen at significant distance,
I have included a number of images taken at other venues on this page to add context and detail.

Great Blue Heron in Flight 0878

A Great Blue Heron in flight at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, NM, on a cold December morning.
The Great Blue Heron, like the Great Egret, bends its neck in flight to tuck its head in close to the body.

Great Blue Heron 0857, 0859

My two best early results at Great Blue Heron shots, taken at the LA River.
The herons there are extremely skittish, and fly when you get inside 100 feet.
I cultivated this bird for weeks to get this close, visiting once or twice a week.

Every time he would let me in closer before flying. Finally, I was able
to approach him as close as the edge of the opposite side of the river.
Then, the trick was to catch him in one of the very few places which was
did not have several piles of alluvial debris deposits in the background.

Great Blue Heron X2730

Shot at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge from about 100 feet across the pond, a typical distance from the Heron before it flies.

Great Blue Heron X0911

This image was taken from about 200 feet. I had to crop down to about half of the frame. This is typical of Great Blue Heron shots taken outside of Florida. They fly when you get within 125 feet or so, and some are more skittish than others.

Great Blue Heron Yellowstone 0598 M

A Great Blue Heron strikes a pose, adopting one of the more elegant positions I’ve seen.
This was taken while the heron was hunting at Obsidian Creek in Yellowstone National Park.
As he was strutting across the creek a fish attracted his attention, creating an interesting shot.

All of the landscape (horizontal) large version images linked from the thumbnails are 1500 pixels wide.
Portrait (vertical) images are 1200 pixels tall (1290 pixels with title bar). Images designated with an “M”
in the shot number are 5:4 aspect ratio, 1500 x 1290 with a title bar, or 1500 x 1200 without a title bar.
Some of the portrait images are also designated as “M”, and are 1500 pixels tall (plus the title bar).

Great Blue Heron Portrait HS1922

This close portrait is rare in two respects. First, that I was able to approach a GBH at
Bolsa Chica Refuge closely enough to try it, and second because of the angle, shooting
from about five feet above the bird. The friend I was shooting with was used to quiet approach,
and I think we came up on him so softly he may not have noticed we were there until I took the shot.

More images of Great Blue Herons are on the Blue Herons page in the Egrets and Herons Wildlife Study.

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Egrets & Herons

Great Egret

The Great Egret stands about three feet tall (a little smaller than the Great Blue Heron), has a slightly down-curved bill, all white plumage and grayish-black legs. The white morph of the Great Blue Heron in Southern Florida is sometimes confused with the Great Egret, but it has a heavier bill that is straight on top and yellowish legs.

The Great Egret is an elegant bird which can be a challenge to expose in many situations, but it looks quite spectacular in flight. Like many egrets, they take off with their neck extended and fly with their neck retracted in an S-shape.

Because of their short tongues, Egrets tend to flip their prey into the air, then catch it in their gullet (the Egret Flip).

The first shots I caught of the “flip” caused quite a stir in the photographic community, and for a while everyone was trying to catch this action. Watch a bird for a while and you will recognize the movement they make before the flip. The prey is only in the air for a fraction of a second, so you have to be quick to catch it centered (or shoot a sequence and hope for the best).

Great Egret Portrait 0125

A Great Egret fluffs up his crest, reacting to my appearance.

Great Egret Portrait 0129

He then settles down for a profile portrait opportunity.

These two backlit portraits taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge were difficult exposures.
The tendency is to hold all highlights, which underexposes the bird, losing feather detail.
Allowing the edge of the bird to blow as it does to the eye achieves a correct exposure.

Great Egret Flip 4156

This was the first “Great Egret Flip”. The Egret’s tongue is rather short,
so the way they get the prey back into their gullet is to flip it in the air, then
strike forward, and catch it at the rear of the bill where the tongue can grab it.

The image above is the shot which started photographers studying these birds so they could
predict and capture “The Flip”. Each bird has a ‘tell’, that gives you a half second or so of warning
that they are going to “Flip” the prey. The trick is to watch a bird until you know its ‘tell’ movement,
and then shoot a sequence. The prey is in the air between the jaws for only 1/4 second or so,
and it is very difficult to get it in one shot, so take a sequence of four and you may get it.

Great Egret Flip 0159

This one, shot during a training session on Sanibel Island, Florida,
caused a lot of controversy. People who saw the shot were sure that I
added the fish later in Photoshop. One fellow even went so far as to write
a fairly long treatise showing what he thought was evidence he gained
from zooming in to the pixel level. I had witnesses (I was teaching
a group of seven people how to shoot wildlife), but he was so
convinced that he was right (and he had supporters who
would not believe this was an unedited image) that I
finally posted the sequence you will see below.

That ended the controversy.

Great Egret Flip 0157-160 M

These shots were all taken within the same second.
They show the entire sequence, from the little downward flick
which constitutes this bird’s ‘tell’ (top left), through the upward head
movement, the opening of the jaws, and the catch at the back of the bill.
It also shows the movement of the bird’s head into the shadow. This
shadow constituted part of the ‘evidence’ of manipulation (light
on the fish was different than light on the bird). End of issue.

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Great Egret Flight X7421

Great Egret Flight X7426

A Great Egret takes flight in front of a group of Double-Crested Cormorants and White Pelicans
at the Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge. More of the images from this flight sequence are shown below.

Great Egret Flight X7433

A Great Egret flying low over the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

Great Egret Flight X7432

Great Egret Flight X7443

Great Egret Flight X7434

A Great Egret flying low over the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

Below are three of my favorite Great Egret flight shots, taken at Bolsa Chica.

Great Egret Flight X4592

A Great Egret in flight over the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica wetlands, with a very attractive wing position.

Great Egret Flight X4593

This is my favorite Great Egret flight shot. I love the wing position and detail.
This is the image I use for the copyright and contact clip on the Wildlife pages.

Great Egret Flight X4594

These were some of the most spectacular Great Egret Flight scenes I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.

Great Egret X5358

Great Egret X5378

A Great Egret standing in the reeds beside the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.
They rarely stretch their necks like this. Compare to the Snowy Egret shown below.

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Snowy Egret

The Snowy Egret is a medium-sized Heron with white plumage, a gray-black bill,
yellow eyes and lores (bare skin between the eyes and the upper base of the bill),
black, yellow-green, or black-and-yellow-green legs, and yellow or yellow-green feet.
Mature birds have black legs, younger birds have black-and-yellow-green legs. In the
breeding season they grow long white plumes and the feet and lores turn a red-gold.

Snowy Egret Hunting
Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge

The Snowy Egret shown at right displayed a rather unusual foraging technique, unique in my experience.

Most of the Snowy Egrets I have seen have used the typical techniques: wading in shallow water to find and capture prey, or standing on the bank or a rock over the water to find prey, which they will then pounce on or strike at depending on how close they are to the prey. Sometimes they run and dance in shallow water, striking on the run when they stir up a fish.

Some Snowy Egrets take advantage of prey herded towards them by other wading birds, who drive fish away when they are hunting, but apparently there is another technique the Snowy uses occasionally: flying very slowly over the water, nearly hovering in some cases, and striking on prey while in flight. I have seen quite a number of Snowy Egrets hunting, but this behavior was only seen once, by this bird.

This was absolutely fascinating, and when I told the friend who was shooting with me at Sepulveda that day, he refused to believe me until I showed him the images. I probably wouldn’t have believed it either if I had not seen it, because it was so different than anything either of us had seen before during many shooting sessions, in which we had seen hundreds of hunting Egrets and Herons.

Below are nine images of this interesting hunting behavior and a preview of the XXXL Composite showing 20 images from the ‘dip-fishing’ sequence.

Snowy Egret X5399

Snowy Egret Hunting X5416

The Snowy Egret takes off for a ‘dip-fishing’ adventure at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

Snowy Egret Hunting X5419 M

The Egret flew slowly with its feet barely over the water.

Snowy Egret Hunting X5420

Snowy Egret Hunting X5425

... and then, suddenly, it would STRIKE!

Snowy Egret Hunting X5442

Note the interesting reflection pattern underneath the wing on this striking image.

(sorry about the pun... I simply could not resist)

Snowy Egret Hunting X5443 M

Snowy Egret Hunting X5455 M

Trolling away from a strike, the Snowy returns to its elegant slow flight, dragging its feet in the water.

Snowy Egret Hunting X5456

A Snowy Egret hovers over the water in an absolutely spectacular foraging technique.

Snowy Egret Hunting X5466 M

“So... did you get that?”

The Snowy looks a bit like a wasp in flight at the end of the hunting sequence.

Snowy Egret Hunting XXXL

A 1500 x 996 preview of the XXXL Composite (11290 x 7500) showing 20 images of a
unique Snowy Egret ‘dip-fishing’ sequence. The XXXL image makes a 4-5 foot matte print.

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Dancing Snowy Egret X0693

A Snowy Egret dancing in the shallow waters at the edge of the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica wetlands.
This is one of their common hunting techniques. They stir up the bottom and catch any disturbed prey.

Snowy Egret Hunting X0761

A Snowy Egret, resplendent in its breeding plumes, hunts at the edge of the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica.
The water of the Main Canal reacts in a spectacular fashion in this high speed image of the end of a strike.

Snowy Egret Hunting X0770

A Snowy Egret takes a close look at the waters of the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica.

Snowy Egret Hunting X0812

A Snowy Egret shakes water off its prey in front of a group of Dowitchers at Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Snowy Egret Tracks HS5130

A Snowy Egret patrols along the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica in the warm light of a Pacific sunset,
with its breeding plumes stirred by an onshore breeze. Many more images of Snowy Egrets shot
in California and Florida are on the Snowy Egret page of the Egrets and Herons Wildlife Study.