I took some photos of a cattle egret near Town Lake in Austin, and I thought it was flapping its wings to keep its balance on the flimsy branch it had lit on. Only in looking at the pictures when I downloaded them did I realize that it was actively breaking off a small branch with its beak. Cattle egrets build nests out of sticks. I read somewhere that the female builds the nest with sticks the male brings her. If so, this is a male doing his stick-gathering chores.
Grasping the branch with its beak...
...success.
Yellow-crowned night heron with willows, at the shore of Town Lake.
Yellow-crowned night heron with poison ivy, a few hundred yards away, taken half an hour later. This may be the same bird as the one above.
click any photo to enlarge
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