John Herman's message sent me scurrying to my trusty copy of Pyle ("Identification Guide to North American Birds," Vol 2) to make sure that I have been correctly aging Little Blue Herons. Pyle says that LBHE's first molt after fledging is a preformative molt in Sep-Feb. Prebasic molt takes place in non-breeding second-years in Apr-Dec, and Jul-Dec for all breeders. Thus, all the white birds we are seeing currently can safely be judged juveniles, including the two we have been reporting from Caesar Creek for almost three weeks. There does not seem to be an "immature plumage" as such. Pyle also states that sexing is highly problematical and probably not reliable in most cases. Ornamental plume length can be used in some cases to distinguish males, but any determination requires in-hand examination. Cheers, Bob On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 2:27 PM, John Herman <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > I've noticed that the majority of little blue herons reported to ebird this > summer have been submitted as immatures. Are these herons really immatures, > or are they really juvenile birds? > There is one ebird Ohio report of an immature male little blue heron. How > was the gender determined for this heron? > Possibly some of us need to be more accurate about age classification in > birds. > Good birding, > John Herman > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. > Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. > Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at > www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. > > You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS > Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask] > -- Robert D Powell Congress Farm Research Institute Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com Nulla dies sine aves ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]