Sightings June 8 waders in the batture

The flooded batture is always a good place to see large wading birds stalking prey.  The river flood has now receded to where there is lots of good habitat, with shallow wet areas just inside the levee.

Old Jefferson is one of the places that usually attracts waders in such circumstances.  Across from Jefferson Playground this morning, the following were all haunting the wet lawn along the levee in the batture.
5 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
7 White Ibis
2 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
1 Black-crowned Night-Heron

The Black-crowned is not usually here.  It was an immature.  They can be tough to tell from Yellow-crowneds when young, both being streaky brown.  In flight, Yellow-crowned has longer legs (a bit of leg, not just feet, sticks past the tail).  But with some experience, you can also tell them by the head and neck shape-  Yellow-crowned have a more block-shaped (squared) head, and a fatter shorter beak.

Yellow-crowneds are described (with pic) on page 22 of Birding Made Easy.

Good birding,

Peter

For a copy of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com