Date: 7/7/12 9:17 am
From: Kurt Schwarz <krschwa1...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Thoughts on Great White Heron


When Marcy and I saw the bird Wednesday, it was plucking breast feathers.
Which leads me to suspect that perhaps it's molting, and may hence stick
around for a while. In any case you can see the breast plucking in a video
I've posted to YouTube at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63381646@N02/7503380178/in/photostream

Howell's book on molt, however, indicates that in North American Ardeidae
"Preformative molts are partial and can be protracted from fall into spring;
they mainly involve head and body feathers and sometimes upperwing coverts."

So I guess that it's plucking breast feathers won't preclude it from moving
on, if it so choses.

Kurt Schwarz
Ellicott City
HowCo
Goawaybird at verizon dot net


--