[Maine-birds] GREAT WHITE HERON, Webhannet Marsh area, Wells 25-26 June

Doug Hitchcox received a report by Brian Harris of a GREAT WHITE HERON in the Webhannet marsh and adjacent wetlands between Mile Road and Harbor Road in Wells. The bird was found Tuesday the 25th and photographed Wednesday. Being like a Great Blue, folks might focus on areas nearer freshwater inlets or ponds around the margins of the marsh.

This is a form currently classified as a subspecies of Great Blue Heron and would be a first state record for the taxon (Ardea herodias occidentalis). It is a local endemic to the Florida Keys, western and northern Greater Antilles, and perhaps the northern Yucatan Peninsula. There is a strong pattern of vagrancy to the north of the Keys with records as far as Nova Scotia. In New England, it has occurred in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. There are a couple of records for New York, as well as several points south.

The bird resembles a Great Egret but has the same build as a Great Blue Heron, having a stocky body and neck, proportionately short legs that are grayish-yellow (this bird with black on the front of the tarsus) and not entirely black as on Great Egret. The bill is heavier and broader than a Great Egret and shows a slight upturn toward the tip of the lower mandible (Great Egret tapers to the tip, curving slightly along upper and lower mandibles evenly). The Great White Heron shows a pale greenish horizontal slash in the gray loral skin in front of the eye, a mark that is shared with Great Blue and not (I think) shown by Great Egret, which is either greenish or yellowish.

The taxonomic status of Great White Heron is uncertain, but I think it is best to treat this as a distinct form well-worth studying and recording. It's occurrence in Maine is of great interest. Some have suggested Great White Heron is a distinct species, whereas others have given it no status at all, considering it a color morph that is predominant in one geographic area. Some people off-handedly will call Great Egrets Great White Heron, and I think that is behind a report this past April from Scarborough on our list (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/maine-birds/91oGUAEqODI/WIxIHXDZLbQJ). Most of the vagrant records are summer into fall, a typical pattern for post-breeding dispersal in herons and egrets from the South. A mid-April report would be even more unusual. In any case, no other information came from this report. The current report from Wells fits perfectly, however.

The Maine Bird Records Committee would appreciate reports of the Wells Great White Heron, especially descriptions and photos. Please send those to me or Doug Hitchcox.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

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