Some water birds on the Charles River

[OpenWater]

They say that the faintest writing is better than the most vivid memory, so with photos. Here is a shot I took eight years ago - not a very good one, IMO, but it will give you an idea of the color of the local birds. There is more light brown on the neck than I remembered and the back is bluer - even though it really does look grey when they are flying. Nonetheless, there is really a striking difference with your birds.



WhiteRiver-04-08232009 by UnderOpenWater, on Flickr

[jamesmck]

Yeah, the colors in yours differ from mine, and neither are a perfect match for any shown on the Cornell site. Sort of like an American melting pot, eh?

There's a nice Great Blue Heron article on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_blue_heron.

[PFMcFarland]

Some of the color variation could be of the local group, but seasonal plumage may come into play. I've seen some birds that were more blue than others. and some that were more gray, so it could even be individual variation, which would be kind of rare in the animal world.

PF