Posted by Phil Pickering (208.46.229.81) on June 19, 2002 at 00:13:28:
In Reply to: heron (loooong) posted by Phil Pickering on June 17, 2002 at 22:06:54:
Just read Gary's reply post of 6/18 below. OOOH... now I have a headache. If I'm reading correctly, the middle REEG illustration in Sibley, which is labeled "2nd year" in my copy, is actually of a winter adult? Knowing that would have saved me a lot of work - and several unnecessary speculative posts! Guess it was worth the mental exercise, though.
To make this post worthwhile, I'll emphasize what I think is, along with leg color, one of the more obvious deal breakers for REEG - I believe the proportional length of the toes alone on this bird eliminates REEG. After photo study, I'd say that REEG and LBHE have close to the same length toes, but REEG is a bigger, longer-legged bird, and their toes seem to always look clearly proportionately much shorter than they do here. In fact, on this bird the toes aren't that much shorter than the tarsus (fine for LBHE) while on a REEG the toes are comparatively much shorter vs. the tarsus. This is illustrated to some extent in Sibley, but I think it is much more obvious is you compare photos of the two species.
Cheers,
Phil