Not like the great shots that others post, but forum contributors have been very helpful in the past for ID of birds. I do not know birds well and may get things wrong when trying to use guides on the internet.

Can anyone tell whether this is a Great Egret or a white phase Great Blue Heron? I'm pretty confident the bird in upper left is a GBH. The location is a small lake in southeast Michigan, in late August.

This was just an opportunistic shot when I was on a walk. The birds were at a long distance across the lake and the only equipment I had that could show them at all was a 400mm 5.6 with the 2x iii converter. No tripod with me, so hand held. It won't hurt my feeling if the answer is "The image is not good enough to tell!"

Thanks in advance.


White phase GBH or Great egret? by Danny Watson, on Flickr