Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa Message Board - Z Birds

Z Birds (reply)

Sunshine — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:23:26 +0000

Thank you for sharing the photos, love them!

Z Birds (reply)

ZihuaRob — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 15:10:13 +0000

The large white birds in my previous post are Great Egrets. You can tell them by their yellow beak. In the mangrove estuaries and our pluvial canals you'll also see Snowy Egrets at this time of year. They are a bit smaller and have a black beak. Egrets are a type of Heron.

In the photo below you can see a male Snowy Egret asserting his authority over the females, several White Ibis, a Roseate Spoonbill and a little guy that looks like a Sandpiper.

Z Bop (reply)

dhunsber — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:30:47 +0000

I can see a great egret or two , and what looks to be a snowy as well. All egrets are essentially herons, inasmuch as they are of the same family, Ardeidae, which includes herons, egrets, bitterns, etc.

Z Bop (reply)

Quadra Paul — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 03:32:54 +0000

So Rob, in your first picture are the large white birds in the foreground a type of heron or are they related to the smaller egret?

Z Bop (reply)

Tere — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 21:01:09 +0000

Thanks for all the beautiful daybreak photos. I've seen millions of sunsets, but I'm rarely up in time to see sunrises. Thanks for sharing!

Z Bop

ZihuaRob — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 18:23:53 +0000

The downtown waterfront in Zihuatanejo has a life of its own, and no matter what else is happening in the area, much of what happens every morning on the Playa Principal and in the bay is mostly a seasonal routine that is pretty much the same day after day and year after year. Often I look at photos of the waterfront and the year the photo was taken is indistinguishable. This is one of those timeless scenes.

Almost every morning before the sun breaks the horizon there is about a 5-minute period when spectacular reds and yellows illuminate the sky, and if there are any clouds to the east the effect is magnified. This morning was no exception.