Recently, I have been closely following a group of roseate spoonbill in a mostly dried up pond near my house. I am in no way an expert on any kind of birds, but I cant seem to find an answer for this online.
I’ve noticed that the group stays very closely together constantly, with each other and with the egrets that follow them around. However, there is one egret, I don’t know sex or age, that stays distant (50-75 feet or so). It appears around the same size and weight as the others, and I haven’t noticed any obvious signs of injury or illness. Although, he doesn’t flee as quickly as the ones in the flock tend to, rather just stares you down then slowly wades off.
Does anyone know why he’s been seemingly exiled? Or just have relevant information on these birds?
I don’t know how this works, but the first “post” was weird. Feel free to let me know how to fix it.
Recently, I have been closely following a group of roseate spoonbill in a mostly dried up pond near my house. I am in no way an expert on any kind of birds, but I cant seem to find an answer for this online.
I’ve noticed that the group stays very closely together constantly, with each other and with the egrets that follow them around. However, there is one egret, I don’t know sex or age, that stays distant (50-75 feet or so). It appears around the same size and weight as the others, and I haven’t noticed any obvious signs of injury or illness. Although, he doesn’t flee as quickly as the ones in the flock tend to, rather just stares you down then slowly wades off.
Does anyone know why he’s been seemingly exiled? Or just have relevant information on these birds?
Concentrated food resources: often food resources (fish, invertebrates, etc.) will get concentrated into a specific area of a pond. This means all the wading birds that eat these also appear concentrated in that area of the pond.
Cooperative foraging: waders often forage near each other so they can take advantage of food stirred up by the other birds. See this observation of a Tricolored Heron hunting near a Roseate Spoonbill, hoping to catch fish the spoonbill spooks.
I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Birds have variation in behavior/sociability just as humans do. This bird may be after a different type of prey where ambush hunting is more effective, or it may just be taking a break from the group.
I’m not sure if you meant that the loner bird was a spoonbill, but if it was an egret could it have been a different species? Little Blue Herons are unusual where I am, but if there is a juvenile around it will often keep its distance from similar looking Snowy egrets. If there is a group of snowy’s with another bird set apart a ways… that’s the bird thats worth checking to see if it is a Little Blue.
