The family life of tricolored herons.

"I still look good for my age." An adult tricolored heron strutting.

"We're hungry!!!"

"Contemplating life." These babies are getting big.

He's saying "What's that big black thing attached to your face?"

Three siblings being quiet for about a second.

Newborns.

A short video of a tricolored heron parent bring in food to the babies who are pretty big at this point. They are very aggressive and were attacking her for food.

Tricolored herons are my favorite babies to take pictures of. They're so animated and have the funniest looks on them. Tricolored herons are not as common as great egrets or great blue herons. I see those birds everywhere. Only occasionally do I see a tricolored heron. It's weird to watch a group of them fighting over sticks for nests and space on the bushes. I guess it's like The Truman Show for birds. We stand on the boardwalk and watch all of these birds live their life. Getting food, making nests, raising babies. They seem to tolerate us watching but could probably get nasty with that sharp beak if we got too close. Do they know that humans don't want to cross that water with alligators in it? Hopefully, they'll all come back next spring.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site! My World

Babies at Gatorland

Baby wood storks. Unfortunately, wood storks nest across the lake and the sun is hard on that side so it's hard to get decent pictures of them.

Snowy egret was just born.

Snowy egrets hiding under mom.

Baby anhingas high up in a tree.

Which feet are Mom's?  (the bright yellow ones)

One down and three to go. This mom's going to be busy.

Just a few more baby pictures from my last Gatorland trip.

Another bird fashion show at Gatorland

Great egret flying by.

Great egret landing on an alligator.

For some reason the birds like to go gator surfing. Actually, you can feed the alligators hot dogs. Birds like to try and steal the dogs from the alligators when they fall in the water. It's a risky meal for the birds.

Cattle egret and friend.

Great egret preening.

I made my last trip over to Gatorland in Orlando in early May. Things will start winding down there at the bird rookery. By now there are mostly cattle egrets with babies. The great egret babies are all grown up and the tricolored heron babies are growing up fast. It's still a great place to get easy bird pictures. The birds pose and are use to having people around. This was my 3rd spring to shoot pictures there. The first year I was clueless. I had bought my first DSLR a couple of months earlier and was just learning how to use it. I didn't realize you could use flash in the shade. I thought flash was just for indoors. The next spring I knew a teeny bit more and I went to a great Flickr meet-up there. Everyone was nice and helpful with tips. This spring I made 3 visits, trying to get different bird babies being hatched. Soon the new zipline ride will open and it will be interesting to see if it has an impact on the birds next spring. The zipline runs across one end (the end where the birds don't nest for some reason) of the big alligator lake and along side of it. The birds may be totally oblivious to it. The park has been building it all spring and I think it opens soon. So, if you want to zipline over alligators then head to Gatorland.

Busy mothers at Gatorland

Mom's on the left with her hands full tending to 2 fast growing babies. They were yelling at her to feed them.

At some point later in the morning I realize she is feeding the babies. She eats the food first and then regurgitates it back to the baby.  Yum!

These 3 babies were busy. They belong to the mom below.

More "feed me" squawking going on. I think the mom was ignoring them.

Where did mom go with the food? I think that's what they were discussing.

All of those bird moms out there in the wild taking care of their babies get no recognition. They sit on them to keep them warm, shield them from the rain, fight off predators and choke back up their food to feed the babies. Sounds like a fun job. But the good news is they only do it for a few months and then they have the free life again, until next spring. I doubt the babies come back to visit on the holidays. I'm sure they don't send cards or flowers. The babies just take off one day and are gone for good. Some human moms out there might be thinking "That sounds good to me." I know when I was in college my mom would say "When are going to move out? "  And then when I did she constantly asked "When are you coming to visit?"

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there, including animal moms.

New babies at Gatorland and a sad story.

I think this snowy egret was born the day before I was there. It was huddled under mom.

Baby anhinga looking up at mom. This was the first time I have seen a baby anhinga. There were 3 babies on this nest.

Baby great egret peaking over the branches.

Warning - my sad story starts with this bottom picture. There were 3 baby snowy egrets on this tiny nest when I first got to the bird rookery at Gatorland. Later in the morning I was watching this particular nest. One baby looked much younger than the other two, maybe by a few days. I then realized that the mom was holding the smallest baby by the foot. It then dawned on me that the mom was pushing the baby out of the nest. The baby didn't fall right away. It's other foot seemed to have gotten caught on a branch. In the picture the back baby was watching the other one fall. You can barely see the little legs sticking up on the far left. There were a few other photographers watching at that point. I've read about how parents or other siblings will kick out the runt if there isn't enough food or room on the nest but to see it happen was strange. The nest was too far away from the boardwalk for anyone to reach and alligators were waiting down below in the water. To make matters worse, I had heard that morning that a lot of babies were lost in the big storm that had moved through Orlando the week before. Even though the day ended on a sad note, there's still lots of babies being born there every day.

Is this a brown cowbird or female grackle? - Skywatch Friday

I was standing on the boardwalk at Gatorland quietly waiting for the baby birds to wake up. I see some movement in the bushes in an area where there aren't any egret or heron nests. All of a sudden I see this tiny brown bird pop up. I started taking pictures of it and several other photographers came by and said it was a brown cowbird baby. It looked to be several weeks old. The nest seemed to be hidden down into the bush. The parent bird (last picture) kept flying over to check on the baby and would fly off again. The parent never stayed long and I didn't see it feeding the baby. Eventually the baby crawled back deep into the bushes. This one had just enough fuzz on the top of it's head to make it cute. As I was looking through my bird books I thought, this really looks more like a female grackle. The female grackle has a longer beak than the cowbird but they should have yellow eyes. But not all of the pictures I found on the web showed the female grackle with yellow eyes. I'm stumped. Any thoughts? 

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

Nature's fashion show at Gatorland.

The great egret gets the lime green color above the beak. Normally, that is a dark yellow that blends in with the beak. They grow the white feather strings that hang down in the spring.

Cattle egret with beige feathers on his chest and head. Normally this would be all white. The beak turns bright purple and orange. His legs get turn brighter.

That little white feather on the head pops up and the tri-colored heron gets a little more burgundy in his feathers. His red eye becomes much brighter.

The snowy egret's yellow beak and feet turn pink and orange.

Pretty pink face.

The adult breeding birds are really pretty this time of year. Bird rookeries are fashion shows for birds. I guess it's their nature's makeup. A couple of weekends ago I headed back to Gatorland to see if there were any more babies. Lots of adults birds with beautiful faces prancing around. Most have coupled up and are either building nests or already have babies. I'm going to try and get to Gatorland one more time to catch the tri-colored heron babies before the season winds down.

Alligators and birds at Gatorland

The big gators were bellowing when I walked into the bird rookery.

A big one standing in the water.

You can feed hot dogs to the gators in the lake but I think the birds eat more of them than the gators do. I once saw a kid throw the hot dog on the gator's head and a bird picked it off his head. I have also seen a gator catch and eat an egret so it happens.

Wood storks close to the boardwalk. I think they were walking around looking for lost hot dogs.

Big smile!

It always seems funny to see the birds use the gator tails as logs to stand on.

This snowy egret was stepping over the gator.

A loud video of the gator bellowing. Birds are calling in the begining. Towards the end you can hear the bellow.

I got to Gatorland right when they opened at 9am and headed straight for the bird rookery. When I got there I heard the strangest noise. I have been to Gatorland several times in the spring for the last 2 years and had never heard that sound before. All of the alligators were bellowing. It sounded like a sick dog groaning. It was very loud. Creepy but interesting. I was just glad I was on the boardwalk and not in some swamp with that sound. The weather was cool when I got there which I think is why the gators were so active that early. It warmed up pretty quick though. It's interesting the relationship with these birds and the gators. They are both just looking for food in the same places. The alligators in the lake provide a safe place for the birds to build their nest over to keep raccoons out (until one of the babies falls out of the nest).  I posted this picture last year on Flickr of an alligator with a great egret - flickr picture. Sad but I know everyone has to eat.

Baby great egrets at Gatorland

This mom has her hands full. Three baby great egrets. These were the only babies at Gatorland when I was there. I'm thinking they were the first ones born. There are several other nests with eggs so soon the bird rookery there will be loud with babies crying to be fed. I missed the other parent flying in with a fish but made it as the mom (I'm assuming the female) started feeding them. It looked like she was eating first and then upchucking pieces of fish to give them. Yum! The babies are so cute with their fuzzy heads and big yellow beaks. They were moving around quite a bit. That nest is going to be full when those babies start to grow. Hopefully, none of them will fall out as the nest overcrowds. There are hungry alligators waiting below.

Find more bird pictures at:

Nesting wild birds at Gatorland

I think it all starts here. The great egret gets that pretty bright green "I'm sexy" color on their face.

Then they grow the "I'm sexy" feathers and start doing the "look at me" dance.

Then they start "going steady" and become a couple.

Then "it" happens. There was a lot of it going on at Gatorland recently.

They work on the nest bringing sticks and twigs.

Then they become parents. This one only had one egg. 

This is a snowy egret with four eggs. They are going to be busy parents when they hatch.

Two weekends ago I made my first seasonal trip over to Orlando to check out the wild bird rookery at Gatorland.  The mangroves along the alligator exhibit are full of wild birds that fly in for the spring to have their babies here. Since the alligators keep away the raccoons, I guess the birds think it's pretty safe for them to build their nests over the alligators. Right now it's mostly great egrets, snowy egrets, anhingas and storks that are nesting with eggs. Soon the tri-colored and blue herons will move in and nest as well. There was only one nest that had hatched (more on those later) so I'm going to try and get back there in late April to check on the rest of the eggs.