Nesting Blue Herons – Florida
One year ago, I and a couple of great friends were getting ready to go down to Florida to photograph at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. I am not a wildlife photographer, even though I work hard at it when I get a chance. What I enjoy the most is just watching the bird or animal behavior. If a good image comes to me, I will gladly receive it.
We watched this pair of herons at a wetlands reserve between Titusville and Orlando. They had quite an interesting behavior pattern. The female (the one behind) was not a very faithful partner. The male would leave the female to gather more twigs to build the nest. While he was away, another male would fly in and mate with the female. The first male would see the other and rush in with his beak filled with a branch chasing the second male away. He would stay in the nest with ruffled feathers for a while, then go back out and collect more branches. As soon as he left, the other male would fly back in. This occurred over and over while we watched the show.
I may be imagining this, to me it looks like the male in the foreground looks a little pissed off, while the female looks a little bored and disgruntled.