Saw this guy (gal?) tonight during my walk:
I was originally going to walk out to the Jamshil Bridge again, but instead, I decided to cross the Tan Creek and do that north-side-of-the-Tan walk I've done so often in the past. The night was pleasantly (and unwontedly for August) cool after the day's rain, and as I was entering the final third of the walk, I saw the above bird standing in the creek next to the bridge I was crossing. Most of the time, these guys are skittish, especially when I stop to take a picture, but this one was intrepid and stood his ground, allowing me to click two shots of him. With both shots being nearly identical, I deleted one and have slapped up the other. What kind of bird is this? Generically, I might call it a crane of some sort, but I know nothing about birds. Ah—I see that Birding Korea lists seven types of Korean crane; none of them has the bent neck of the bird in my photo, so my bird might not be a crane at all. Any ideas?
A heron or egret?
ReplyDeleteThat question mark is not reassuring me!
ReplyDeleteJoking aside, heron might be the correct answer. I found a pic of a Great Blue Heron that looks a lot like my bird, down to the color scheme of the head. And the heron has that bend in its neck.
ReplyDeleteBird identification is not a strong suit of mine. But the bird pictured does resemble a Great Blue Heron. We have the here as well. I thought for sure that I must be mistaken because I didn't know that the Great Blue Heron had such a range. Perhaps they are cousins of some sort.
ReplyDeleteTo follow-up on my previous comment. I decided to google the Great Blue Heron. It seems the range of the GBH is North America. But there is a very similar Grey Heron in Eurasia. Your pictured bird might be a Grey Heron.
ReplyDelete