Thursday I made my annual trek up to Magee Marsh for the warbler migration. I'll be going through photos for several days. This is from the adjacent Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, along the driving tour. I saw hundreds of Egrets, this may have been the closest I got to one.

[C_Jones]

Nice shot. I have seen them on occasion at a marsh/lake area that I have been to.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

That is a very good image Tom, thanks for showing us

[slowpez]

Nice background behind the bird too. Nicely captured.

[Lowell Goudge]

I believe it is a snowy egret not a great egret.

You can tell by black bill and legs. The great egret has a yellow bill and greenish hellow legs

[Tonytee]

Nicely done my friend, wonderful work. TFS.

TT

[photolady95]

You can tell by black bill and legs. The great egret has a yellow bill and greenish hellow legs

I believe you're wrong there Lowell. It's a Great White Egret. Check here:

Great Egret, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

See Color Pattern description.

Snowy Egret has black legs but yellow feet and their bill is completely black, no portion of it has yellow.

The above bird is in breeding stage.

And a beautiful shot of a beautiful bird Tom. TFS.

[ramseybuckeye]

Thanks for the comments

I believe you're wrong there Lowell. It's a Great White Egret. Check here:

Great Egret, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

See Color Pattern description.

Snowy Egret has black legs but yellow feet and their bill is completely black, no portion of it has yellow.

The above bird is in breeding stage.

And a beautiful shot of a beautiful bird Tom. TFS.

Most of the great egrets that I see have some black on the top of their yellow bills,

Here is a Snowy Egret, when you see them together the snow id much smaller and it's hard to describe but they have a little difference in the shape.

[aslyfox]

I am no expert, in photography or bird ID but

if you use the zoom on your computer to "blow up" the image, you see a greenish patch on the face at the rear of the beak

"The pristinely white Great Egret gets even more dressed up for the breeding season. A patch of skin on its face turns neon green, and long plumes grow from its back. . . . " - Great Egret, Life History, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

breeding coloration great egret - Google Search

All I know is that I like the photo

[photolady95]

That's why I said it was in breeding status Allen. I have several shots of these birds in flickr account.

And Tom, I wasn't disagreeing with you, Lowell was.

[aslyfox]

That's why I said it was in breeding status Allen. I have several shots of these birds in flickr account.
. . .

I wasn't disagreeing with you photolady95

some of us don't have the excellent photo library you obviously have and I thought having a link could be helpful, so I provided one

as they say:

"A picture is worth a thousand words"

[photolady95]

Did you miss the one I provided in my post?

Great Egret, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

That one was in my post, number seven in this thread.

[aslyfox]

not to beat a dead horse but -------,

yes I followed your link to that excellent site and saw a photo of the bird with the yellow bill, not a photograph of the bird in the breeding coloration

the color pattern section you guided us to did not mention the breeding coloration

I then clicked on "life history" section and found the description I quoted, confirming as you properly stated, that the bird was in breeding coloration

I then decided to find a confirming picture, did so and posted a direct link to such pictures.

[photolady95]

I give up. I figured you'd get the incentive to look at the photos provided that shows the a breeding adult. Photo number four shows a breeding adult.

Or show you this one:

[aslyfox]

the # 4 post has no image

"say good night gracie"

drops the mike and walks off stage