SOUTHEASTERN CARIBBEAN BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY

Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club         Southeastern Caribbean Bird Alert         Trinidad and Tobago Rare Bird Committee

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)

Immature at Caroni Rice Fields, Trinidad, 28 September 2002. Photo © by Graham White. First record for T&T, second for South America and third for the New World. Note the reddish neck and the size in comparison with an adult Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) on the right. This bird was found by Martyn Kenefick on 24 September 2002. Previous New World records include single birds at Fernando de Noronha in June 1986 (Teixeira, D. M., J. B. Nacinovic, and F. B. Pontual. 1987. Notes on some birds of northeastern Brazil. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 107:151-157) and at Graeme Hall Swamp, Barbados, in early 1999 (Martin Frost and Edward Massiah pers. comm.). An individual was observed briefly in flight at Buccoo Swamp, Tobago, on 2 September 1999, but the details provided by a single, albeit experieced observer were considered inadequate for acceptance by the Trinidad and Tobago Rare Bird Committee.