Wading Birds Quiz

Anhingas

The _______ is a dark-bodied waterbird that you will find year-round in lakes, ponds, streams, and sitting atop features (natural or man-made) near water to dry itself. They can also be found in lagoons and brackish water but do not prefer extensive open water. An unusual feature is their lack of waterproof feathers. Their dense bodies and wet feathers allow them to become a sly and submerged predator in the water to stalk fish. They are also referred to as a “snakebird” or “darter because of their snake-like head and neck and how they stab fish with their dagger-like bill. Often, they appear to be a Lochness with only their head above water. You have probably seen this bird with its outstretched silvery feathers. After every dip the Anhinga will strike a regal pose with its head held high to dry its feathers. Once dry it will take to thermals. This is an iconic and easily visible activity of the species, often mistaken for a mating display.

Identifying Features

• Long S-Shaped Neck

• Long Tail

• Dagger-like bill

Males

• Black and silver streaked wings on the back

Female/immature

• Pale Head, neck, breast, and wings

• Dark belly

Black-crowned night heron

As their name implies, these stocky wading birds are active at night and dusk. Black-crowned night herons are social birds and breed in colonies of nests over water. However, they forage on their own. they live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world. They can look like almost 2 different birds. It will tuck its neck into its body creating a hunched-back look. They take flight with their neck retracted as well. While reaching maturity, you may see a mixed black and yellow bill.

Adult, Identifying features:

• long white head plumes, gray wings, pale gray belly

• Nicely defined black crown and back

• All-black bills

• Bright red eyes

• Thick legs and neck

Common moorhen

The ______ _______ is a medium sized bird that swims like a duck but walks like a rail with its long slender toes. It lives in marshes and ponds expanding from Canada to Chile.

Adult, Identifying features:

• Brilliant red shield over a yellow bill

• White “racing” stripe over the side

• White outer tail feathers

• Charcoal gray body

Double-crested cormorant

The ______-_______ _________ has a prehistoric look to it with its serpentine matte-black body. Found in Fresh and salt water across North America they attract the most attention standing on docks, marinas, rocky islands, and channel markers when you visit the coast. As a relative of the Frigate bird, they tend to be part of your boating experience in Florida.

Adult, Identifying features:

• Only have a double-crest during breeding season

• Orange-yellow skin around base of bill and chin

• Long, kinked necks

• Thin strongly-hooked bills.

Great blue heron

The _____ ____ _____ is a large wading bird that can strike like lightning. You will often see one standing motionless as it scans for prey. You can see here they have specialized chest feathers that continuously grow. They use these feathers as a “washcloth” to remove oil and slime from other feathers as they preen. Herons use slow, deep wingbeats to take flight. You will typically seem them with a tucked-in neck and their long legs trailing out behind while flying.

Identifying features:

• Largest North American Heron

• Blue-gray color pattern all over

• Wide black stripe over the eye

• Black crown

• Long orangish-yellow bill

• Head plumes

Great egret

The _____ _____ is also a heron, hunting in the classic fashion by standing very still while hunting fish with a deadly jab of their bill. You may have noticed they are the symbol for the National Audubon Society. They become more decorative during breeding season. Their facial patch turns neon green and long plumes grow from their beak. Called aigrettes, these plumes nearly drove them to extinction and were used to adorn ladies’ hats in the late nineteenth century. In flight their legs extend far beyond their short tail, and they will usually tuck their neck back.

Identifying features:

• An entirely white body

• Yellowish-orange bills

• Black legs

Green heron

The _____ _____ is a stocky bird with a hunched over appearance. They wait patiently to snatch their prey and sometimes use a lure such as a twig, insects, or even breadcrumbs. It is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species. At a distance this species appears much darker. Like other herons, they can also stretch out its long neck which can provide a snake-like stab when hunting. they look ungainly in flight, partially uncrooking their neck and looking front-heavy.

Identifying features:

• Slender yellow legs

• Velvet-green back and crown

• Rich chestnut body

• Dark cap that raises into a short crest

• Dark gray wings

Laughing gull

You’ll run across the ________ ____ in large numbers at beaches, docks, and parking lots where they wait for handouts and provide a beach atmosphere with their raucous calls. They are year-round visitors along the Southeast and Gulf Coast. They are known for their laugh-like cry and happy appearance. Nonbreeding adults have some black smudging around the eye, but are otherwise very similar being white and medium gray while missing a black cap.

Identifying features:

• Stout, fairly long bills

• Medium gray wings and back

• White chest and underneath

• White arcs around the eyes

• Crisp black hood

• Reddish bill

• Reddish to black legs.

Limpkin

The _______ stands out as an unusual bird and reaches the northern limits of its breeding range in Florida. You have likely heard its evocative screaming cry while visiting a wetland. They feed almost exclusively on apple snails by using their long bills for extraction. Their bills have a gap just before the tip that acts as specialist tweezers. They opportunistically eat other prey such as frogs, lizards, crustaceans, worms, and insects. They resemble a heron or ibis but is closely related to rails and cranes. Their unique form makes them easy to identify.

Identifying features:

• Tall and long-legged

• Long neck

• Long and heavy yellowish bill

• Brown overall with white spotting on back and sides

• Unique morphology

Mallard

________ frequent urban ponds and lakes as well as wilder wetlands and estuaries throughout North American and Eurasia. Being the most common duck, almost all domesticated ducks from Mallards. They are mostly monogamous and you will usually find the mottled females swimming alongside the ornate male. Impressive speculum, a patch used to identify many ducks.

Male Identifying features:

• Dark, iridescent-green head with a white collar

• Pale underneath

• Bright yellow bill with orange legs and feet

• Brown breast and black rear

• Blue “speculum” patch in their wing

• White tail with curled black feathers

Female Identifying features:

• Brown mottled body with dark spotting

• Orange and brown bills

• Orange legs and feet

• Blue “speculum” patch in the wing

Muscovy duck

The _______ ____ is slightly larger than a Mallard. Males are the largest duck in North America, with females being half their size. Unlike other ducks, they do not quack but rather hisses. It is native to South American, Central America, Mexico, and portions of Texas. It has been introduced worldwide, including Florida, where it is often considered an invasive species.

Identifying features:

• Variable white patches on the wings

• Mostly black bodies with greenish gloss

• Red facial skin with odd warty growths (called caruncles)

• Strong claws to assist with perching in trees

Pied-billed grebe

Rarely seen in flight and often hidden by vegetation, ____-______ ______ inhabit sluggish rivers, freshwater marshes, lakes, and estuaries to feed on aquatic invertebrates. There are trade-offs for their aquatic prowess. They are inefficient fliers, typically stay in the water, and walk awkwardly on land.

Identifying features:

• Blocky head

• Short, thick bill

• Almost no tail

• Vertical black stripe on the bill

• Small size, smaller than a crow

Sandhill crane

The ________ _____ is an elegant and attention-grabbing wading bird. It is a powerful-looking bird with its striking size, dagger-like bill, and large claws. It breeds in open prairies, wetlands, and fields across North America. They can be seen year-round in Florida especially in the winter. They are usually paired and are monogamous for life, living up to ~36 years old. The oldest fossil is 2.5 million years old and discovered in Florida.

Identifying features:

• Long slender neck and long legs

• Tall, heavy-bodied

• Drooping near feathers called a “bustle”

• Gray overall with some tan body feathers

• Bright red crown

• Pale cheek

Snowy egret

_____ ______ are smaller than Great egrets and are medium sized herons. They were endangered much like the Great egret for their curvy plumes.

Identifying features:

• All white body

• Black bill

• Yellow skin at base of bill

• Black legs

• Yellow feet

• Filmy, curvy plumes during breeding season

Tricolored heron

The __________ _____ is a fairly small heron and inhabits coastal estuaries. They hunt by wading through coastal waters to catch small fish but are not as slow and methodical as the Great blue heron.

Identifying features:

• Mixture of blue-gray, lavender, and white

• White belly unlike other dark herons

• Yellowish legs

• Bright yellow patch around the bill

Breeding __________ _____ differs with:

• Pink legs

• Bright blue patch of skin around bill

• Small white plumes extending from back of head

• Flourishes extending off back

White ibis

You may have seen these birds comb through your lawn looking for insects, worms, and even lizards. Often, they remove past species not good for your lawn. This is because they take advantage of flooded fields and shallow wetlands. They travel in groups and are native to the coastal southeast. It is common to see a mottled brown and white immature tag along in their groups. Juvenile/immature will range from mostly brown to mottled white as they mature into full white.

Identifying features:

• Football-shaped all-white body

• Long, curved bill

• Red legs, bill, and patch around the eyes

• Black wing tips (seen mostly in flight)

Wood stork

The ____ _____ is a bald-headed wading bird just over 3 feet tall. You will find them in wetlands and wildlife preserves along the coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Identifying features:

• Massive size

• Long legs, long heavy curved bill

• White overall with black tail and flight feathers

• Head is bare and scaly, has wooden appearance

• Tucked in neck at rest, extended in flight

Yellow-crowned night heron

It forages during the day or night and specializes in stalking crustaceans in shallow wetlands and wet fields shaking them apart or swallowing them whole. this heron is more of a coastal bird. Like the Sandhill crane, its oldest fossil record is about 2.5 million years old. While Black-crowned night herons and Green herons have a similar form to this heron, you can clearly see the stark differences in their crowns.

Identifying features:

• Blocky head and thick neck

• Boldy marked black head with white cheek patch

• Yellow crown and head plumes (can be hard to see the color)

• Gray underparts

• Bright orange-yellow legs