Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Great Blue Heron, white morph (Ardea herodias occidentalis)

Abundance: Rare (3 records in 4 counties, 1 in Kentucky and 3 in Tennessee).

Status: Visitor (or post-breeding disperser) during late summer (1 record) and fall (2 records); photographs (see links below).

Regional High Count: 1 (all records below).

Information on Records: 

21-25 July 2000 (1 possible juvenile) Pulaski County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton photo; Palmer-Ball 2003).

21 September-11 November 2002 (1) Happy Hollow Boat Ramp, Caney Fork River, DeKalb/Putnam/Smith counties, Tennessee (Carol D. Williams, Stephen J. Stedman photo, m. ob.; Casteel 2003a; Stedman and Williams 2003; Todd 2005); photo (1 adult [note occipital plume]; 1 November 2002, Happy Hollow Boat Ramp, DeKalb/Putnam/Smith counties, Tennessee; Stephen J. Stedman).

19 October 2003 (1 standing on nest in small rookery of Great Blue Herons) Moss Island [c. 1 km north of the Floating Mill Recreation Area], Center Hill Lake, DeKalb County, Tennessee (Carol D. Williams, Don Williams, Stephen J. Stedman; Casteel 2004a); the first two observers viewed this individual from a boat located right next to Moss Island; the latter observer viewed it with a 40/64X scope from a distance of c. 1 km.

Breeding: The presence of an individual of this morph of Great Blue Heron standing on a nest in a Great Blue Heron rookery during 2003 was of interest, but the October date mitigates against viewing this observation as breeding related.

Habitat: The individual in Pulaski County, Kentucky, stayed at a small farm pond; the individual in DeKalb/Putnam/Smith  counties during 2002 favored a dam-controlled river where trout were being regularly stocked; and the individual in DeKalb County during 2003 was observed at a small rookery on a small island in the middle of a large embayment of Center Hill Lake.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Remarks: The observations in 2002 and 2003 probably involved the same individual, which was considerably less likely to have been, but possibly also was, the same bird observed in Pulaski County.

    The site of the 2002 observations lies right at a point where DeKalb, Putnam, and Smith counties come together along the Caney Fork River at the Happy Hollow Boat Ramp.

Counties with Observations (boldfaced):

To see a map (Figure 1) displaying data about this subspecies, click on the boldfaced word in this sentence.

Literature Cited