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<\/p>\nAn esoteric question to be sure but I think about stuff like that, especially when I get photos like some of these.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Ten days ago I found this lone adult Black-crowned Night Heron perched on a stump of old phrag stems in the middle of a small pond. “He’ very nearly spooked as I drove up but he soon settled down and eventually began to hunt for fish. At least I thought he was fishing but the only prey he caught was small aquatic insects.<\/p>\n This species has long, bright white occipital plumes (nuchal plumes) hanging down from the top of their heads but they often hug the body and can be difficult or impossible to see, as in this photo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was late in the morning so the light was beginning to get harsh and I was having difficulty getting light in his eye. And he wasn’t catching any fish anyway so my goal became to try to capture his head plumes flying up in weird directions when he made strikes for prey – and when he’d shake his head after a strike. I’m easily entertained by photos like that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was pretty easy to do. I got quite a few photos similar to this one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After a strike he’d shake his head to get rid of water and sometimes I captured his plumes sticking straight up, or nearly so. Oodles of shutter speed helped to get them sharp.<\/p>\n I’ve never been able to get a definitive answer regarding how many head plumes this species is supposed to have. Most sources (including Cornell’s Birds of the World) only say that they have white head plumes but they don’t say how many. But one source, Natureworks<\/a><\/span><\/span>, actually states that “In breeding season adults have two long white plumes on their heads.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Oh, really? Then why does this guy have three? I got quite a few photos of him that clearly show three head plumes. Geez, I thought everything I read on the internet is true…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the end I still don’t know if adult Black-crowned Night Herons have a specific number of head plumes. Or not. I suspect it may depend on variables such as age, sex (I doubt it), molt stage, genetic variation and the vagaries of a strenuous life that does damage to feathers.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Late addendum: <\/em><\/p>\n I made an error in my post when I said that Cornell’s Birds of the World doesn’t say how many plumes this species has. I looked in the “Identification” section where all it said about plumes was “and white head plumes are well developed”. But Lyle Anderson found more info on plumes in BotW in the Definitive Basic Plumage section where it says:<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCrest glossy greenish black with 1\u20138 (average 2\u20133) long white occipital plumes, sometimes blackish or gray at base (see below)\u2026. Occipital plumes average longer in males than females (Gross 1923, Palmer 1962a, Pyle 2008), and in mated pairs the males sometimes have one or two more than the female (Noble et al. 1938).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/black-crowned-night-heron-9182-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"black-crowned-night-heron-9182-ron-dudley\\"")
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