American Bittern

My previous post suggested that I had two or three most posts from the last field trip of the 2007 ABA Conference in Lafayette. I decided tonight that it would be only one more post. This one.

As the title of this post announces, here are a couple pictures of an American Bittern. The first is with minimal zoom and no cropping to give you an idea of how this species hides in tall grass. The vertical stripes, brown coloration and bill-pointed-to-the-sky stance help it blend in quite nicely. It can look just like one of the reeds or part of the grass it is standing within.

The second picture is of a different bird than the first (another picture taken through a tinted van window). This bird was just standing in a marshy ditch next to the road. Oddly, the bird only knows one way to blend into its surroundings, even if those surroundings are not a good fit for its natural camouflage. I can just imagine this bird standing there, perfectly still, staring at our stopped van thinking "I am invisible! I am invisible! The big white van stopped for some other reason because I am invisible!".