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Little blue herons are birds of the southeast, but they occur fairly frequently in extreme southern California. Four of these individuals were in San Diego, California; the others were in southern Florida. The bird trailing some long plumes associated with breeding was at the San Diego River mouth; several other pictures were made at nearby Mission Bay. The Florida birds were feeding in Little Estero Lagoon and Sanibel Island, roosting in mangroves at Merritt Island, or flying past me at Fort DeSoto Park and in the Big Cypress Preserve. For most of these images, I used fill-in flash to lighten the shadows (the herons paid no attention at all to the flash or to me). I'm not sure why the degree of blue coloration is so different in these birds, but it was obvious by eye as well as in these images.
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