Expert: Roger Lederer - 8/17/2009

Question
Im in Central Florida, It has been cloudy, rainy and cool all day, and i saw 2 large groups of birds that are only out in this area cus of the rain-cus ive never seen em before, I need some help trying to figure out what they could be. There was a bunch of large white birds that looked like some type of water bird with long legs, but every one ofthem had their head in the grass,they were larger than duck size, and along with them, were some brown birds of the same shape, long legs, long beak, The brown ones did not have any other color on them anywhere... They were all in a feild eating together. Near a pond near a highway. Id like to say the white ones coulda been a great egret but they didnt have the feathery=ness of them, and the brown ones like a Glossy Ibis. Any clues to what i may look for, if possible... Thank you

Answer
Large white birds that look like water birds with long legs are either Snowy or Great Egrets or Black-crowned night herons. You didn't say if they were totally white - but since you couldn't see the heads, they might have been a different color. If they were the night herons, the brown ones you saw were the young. Or you might have seen American Bitterns. But the white ones are definitely herons or egrets and have straight bills; the ibis have curved bills. So look for any other markings besides white and the shape of the bill to identify.