3-12-2024 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - GREY HERON (Ardea cinerea)

The Grey Heron is a large grey heron having white and black accents, a white crown with black plumes, black belly, and white thighs.

Adult: The adult has a white head (including crown, sides, throat) with a broad black eye stripe extending from above the eye to the back of the crown and continuing as a crest with several elongated, black plumes. The long and heavy bill is yellow with a dull brown suffusion along the lower bill and top of the upper bill. The irises are yellow and lores are yellow turning darker green around the eye. The chin, throat, and neck are light grey to white, with the neck being tinged buff at its base. The foreneck is grey-white with two distinct broken black streaks running parallel down the median. The upper back and hind neck are pale grey, the lower back and upper wing blue-grey. Pale grey lanceolate feathers occur along the back. The flight feathers are dark grey to black contrasting with the paler upper wings and uniform grey to white under the wing. At rest, a black “shoulder” patch with a few white feathers is formed at the forward bend of the wing. The flanks are grey, the sides of the belly black, but the rest of the under parts are light grey to white, including the feathered thighs. The breast feathers are loose and elongated. The tail is grey. The legs and feet are green-grey to yellow-brown, varying in shade with age and season; the upper leg is paler (more yellow) than the lower leg.