What’s the distinction between a heron and an egret? — KK on BPK
The Old High German phrase for heron was heiger, their title for the long-necked, long-legged wading birds. That advanced into the Old French phrase heiron, which advanced into the Middle English harn, then heiron, then heroun, which turned the Modern English, heron. (Though you’d count on the Brits to spell it heroun on account of their penchant for uselessly including a u to phrases. Colour me snarky.)
The phrase egret comes from the French aigrette, which additionally comes from the Old German heiger. The adaptation of the -ette suffix was a diminutive, to explain what’s now known as the little egret.
But none of this implies something. Since the 2 phrases rooted in Old German – the unique OG – divided and commenced to duplicate, they’ve been utilized willy-nilly to numerous members of the heron household. There isn’t any constant rhyme or purpose to it, simply historical past and behavior.
But simply in case you had been asking how you can differentiate between a few of our similar-looking native birds – the nice egret and the nice white heron – that’s fairly simple. Great egrets have black legs. Great white herons have pale, flesh-colored legs.
How would birds prefer it if folks took (poops) on their automobiles? — Elena of Stage and Screen
Elena. Birds don’t have automobiles. You should know this.
But for a second, suppose they did.
We have, as a species, not achieved proper by them. We’ve decimated their habitat, turning a lot of the land they should survive and thrive into strip malls, golf programs, parking heaps and McMansions. We’ve let our pet cats roam free and kill an estimated 2.4 billion-with-a-b birds yearly. (Free-roaming home cats have brought about or contributed to the extinction of 63 species of mammals, reptiles and birds. So far.)
We’ve constructed big shiny buildings, and put in uncountable units of extra modest sliding glass doorways, all of which seem like open sky to them, which birds slam into by the hundreds of thousands.
And I’m not going to enter all of the horrible poems wherein they’ve been pressured to work, towards their will, as obscure metaphors for our ever-frail and self-centered human feelings.
Do you suppose for a second that if birds did, actually, have automobiles, that we wouldn’t discover a option to poop on them?
We’re fortunate they didn’t go all Alfred Hitchcock on us years in the past. Don’t get them mad by complaining an excessive amount of about their tiny poops.
I simply obtained a video of a snowy egret and I consider he was fishing along with his yellow ft. Do they try this? — Beachfront Ward
According to science, or a minimum of extremely observant biologists, herons and egrets use a complete of 34 totally different strategies to forage for dinner — normally fish, shrimp, worms or different small creepy-crawlies. Snowy egrets are thought to have the widest repertoire of strikes, having been noticed utilizing 21 of these 34 strategies – tongue-flicking, head-swaying, pecking, walking rapidly and leapfrog-feeding amongst them. What you’re describing feels like both hover-stirring or foot-dragging. (The papers that described these ways had been printed within the Seventies, and I couldn’t observe down descriptions of precisely how these ways had been executed.)
Herons and egrets can’t truly catch fish with their ft, however what they’ll do is startle and confuse the fish, then snatch them up with their payments.
The first weekend I discovered to determine snowy egrets (it’s the black legs and yellow ft) I used to be up within the Everglades at a place known as Mrazek Pond. I noticed snowies doing one thing I consider is much like what you noticed – the birds had been flying low and sluggish over the water, dragging their toes throughout the floor like rakes, after which stabbing down at their toes with their payments, presumably making an attempt to catch fish. I’ve seen a couple of thousand snowy egrets since, however I haven’t seen that habits once more. Pretty cool you bought to see — and video — it.
Why do birds abandon their infants after somebody touches their eggs? That appears excessive. — Dave the Ghost Hunter
It does appear excessive. But it’s okay – it’s a fable. It doesn’t truly occur.
Birds are eminently practical creatures. And they put plenty of effort and power into mating, building a nest, laying eggs and tending to them. And they don’t seem to be superstitious. If their eggs aren’t broken, they don’t seem to be going to view them as one way or the other sullied.
Suppose you climbed a tree, or used a ladder, discovered a nest, and like some bratty child put your finger on every of the eggs simply so you would say you touched them. Or even suppose you picked up every egg and held it gently for a second earlier than rigorously changing it within the nest – as a result of solely a rat bastard would harm an egg within the nest.
If a mum or dad chicken noticed you, they might have one among two reactions. More aggressive species like osprey, kingbirds and mockingbirds would come at you. An osprey, with its razor-like talons, would attempt to mess you up, draw some blood. A kingbird or mockingbird would in all probability attempt to dive at you first, to intimidate you. And if that didn’t work, they may strive touchdown in your head, pecking at you, pulling your hair, in an try to harass you into leaving.
Birds like warblers or vireos, who should not aggressive but additionally in all probability know there’s not a lot they might bodily do to problem you, would most probably lurk within the shadows, watching and ready, hoping you probably did no harm, hoping they didn’t must attempt to lay one other clutch that season.
But if the mum or dad chicken didn’t see you, how would they know you had been even there? Birds don’t have safety cameras, and most have a horrible sense of odor. And even when they did odor one thing faint, they might not regard their eggs, their potential future offspring, as sullied. They would come again as quickly as you exited the scene.
P.S. – It’s additionally a fable that birds will explode in the event that they eat rice thrown at weddings. That’s only a lie perpetrated by the marriage industrial advanced in order that they don’t have to comb all of it up after newlyweds go away the church.
