2/23/2011: with color on its wings, Green Heron

Back to digiscoped birds for Wings on Wednesday!

Ever wonder why it was called the Green-backed Heron and is still the Green Heron? I have. Sometimes birds just have to get in the right light. I was digiscoping this bird tucked back in the mouth of the culvert pipe between the Rest Room pond and the water channel at Merritt Island NWR (I have already published one set of pics of this bird from this trip taken on another day…see 2/8) when he moved from the shadows and posed in full sun on a dead mangrove branch. How good is that! Here you get to see the full range of plumage colors on this stunning bird, including the green iridescence on the wings and back. It was a first for me.

Here it is a bit closer.

And closer still.

Needless to say, I have a lot of exposures of this bird in this pose!

It was just such a stunning view, and that is such an amazing green! And there is NO light like FLORIDA light for digiscoping!

Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for equivalent fields of view of 1) 1000mm @ 1/400th @ ISO 125, 2) 2500mm @ 1/320 @ ISO 125, 3) 3500mm @ 1/200th @ ISO 125 and 4) 3500mm @ 1/320 @ ISO 125.

Processed for clarity and sharpness in Lightroom. No color enhancement. That is just as the bird struck the sensor!