Do egrets taste bad?

[Finagle]

I was recently musing on the fact that little blue herons are pure white as juveniles and only later develop the rather good camouflage of the adult. This is contrary to what you see in many birds, where the juvenile is dull and well-suited for hiding invisibly in the bushes while the adult has brighter plumage or more distinctive markings (e.g. bald eagles).

So I was wondering if the juveniles are white in order to blend in with the more common egrets. And that got me to wondering why evolution played such a dirty trick on egrets – a pure white bird in a marsh can be spotted at a great distance by land or aerial predators. So my hypothesis is that egrets are not particularly tasty and that juvenile little blue herons mimic them so as not to be eaten. But not surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be much on the web about the deliciousness or lack-thereof of wading waterfowl.

Are there any other theories that might explain the pure white coloring of egrets?

[Leaper]

Of course they do; haven’t you ever heard of people having bitter egrets?

[DSeid]

Well we need someone who can honestly sing:

“Egrets, I’ve had a chew …”

[Colibri]

I’m not aware that there is any clear explanation for the white plumages found in some herons and egrets. Besides juvenile Little Blue Herons being white, several species occur in both white and dark morphs, such asReddish Egret, Reef Heron, Little (Dimorphic) Egret, and others. One proposal is that white plumage has an advantage in foraging because the birds are less visible to fish beneath the surface.

[DSeid]

Trying to find more information I have found this and this that expands upon Colibri’s point.

It seems to be an advantage in certain foraging strategies in certain locations.

Our results indicate that white plumage may
confer an ecological advantage for wading birds foraging
in open water habitats. Conversely, dark-plumaged birds
may be at a disadvantage foraging in open water. The
ecological advantage for dark-plumaged herons in relation
to foraging behaviour is unclear. Future studies should
investigate other selective pressures (e.g. thermal properties,
predator avoidance) that may act upon dark plumage
colour in herons.

Along the way found this bit too. Unrelated but boy, I thought I grew up in a dysfunctional family and had it hard being the youngest child. Thank God I wasn’t a youngest sib egret!

WHAT begins as one of nature’s most heartwarming scenes, three downy white chicks aflutter in their nest, often ends as one of its most gruesome. In a nasty case of sibling rivalry, researchers have found, the two eldest chicks in an egret nest will often attack and kill their youngest sibling, sometimes pitching it over the side. And where are mother and father during all of this? Standing idly by, preening and yawning.

Researchers say the killing of a sibling, or siblicide, as well as less extreme forms of sibling rivalry, is being recognized in increasing numbers of species, presenting the knotty evolutionary question of why so many animals regularly do in their siblings while parents do not lift a feather or paw to intervene.

Killing a sibling may just be in bad taste after all.

[bob_2]

“And where are mother and father during all of this? Standing idly by, preening and yawning.”

No doubt thinking “Well, that’s one less to feed.”

[cochrane]

@Leaper

Of course they do; haven’t you ever heard of people having bitter egrets?

@DSeid

Well we need someone who can honestly sing:

“Egrets, I’ve had a chew …”

Both of you, please make your way to the nearest egress.

[bienville]

Here’s some information that is not in the least bit helpful:

During the summer of the Gulf Oil Spill, I posted a comic on Facebook called “Ollie the Oily Egret”.

I’m sure that once an egret is covered in oil he tastes even worse.

[LSLGuy]

@Finagle

… But not surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be much on the web about the deliciousness or lack-thereof of wading waterfowl. …

Deliciousness to who? IIRC most critters that dine mostly on fish or shellfish taste pretty nasty … to humans.

But how much are we the predators that matter to egret evolution vice, say, alligators, egg eating snakes, or who-knows-what? And how much is taste even a factor in animal predation?

ISTM that taste as an aesthetic matter is a luxury of the rich, like humans and other apex feeders. To be sure animals have familiar and unfamiliar prey, and perhaps to an alligator egrets just aren’t comfort food the same way, say, geese are.

Interesting question overall though. I hope we can learn more about these issues.

[sitchensis]

Mergansers taste bad. Geese, ducks and sandhill cranes taste good. I’m willing to bet that shore birds that are mostly herbivorous are going to be okay but anything eating fish, fish eggs or shell fish are going to be nasty.

[TriPolar]

@sitchensis

Mergansers taste bad. Geese, ducks and sandhill cranes taste good. I’m willing to bet that shore birds that are mostly herbivorous are going to be okay but anything eating fish, fish eggs or shell fish are going to be nasty.

Thanks. The list of birds that taste good will be more useful information.

[Bill_Door]

@sitchensis

Mergansers taste bad. Geese, ducks and sandhill cranes taste good. I’m willing to bet that shore birds that are mostly herbivorous are going to be okay but anything eating fish, fish eggs or shell fish are going to be nasty.

And yet swordfish, shark, tuna, and many other fish that eat fish taste good. I’ve always wondered about penguin. Do they taste like chicken or fish?

[Gary_T]

@sitchensis

Mergansers taste bad. …ducks…taste good.

This is rather confusing, as mergansers are ducks.

[Tamerlane]

@sitchensis

Mergansers taste bad. Geese, ducks and sandhill cranes taste good.

In addition to mergansers being ducks, as GaryT noted ;), there is wide discrepancy in ducks. Ducks usually follow the pattern that “you are what you eat” and diving ducks in general that feast on thing like clams and crabs, not just fish specialists like the mergansers, apparently tend to taste like crap. Dabbling ducks tend to taste better. But the most filter-feeding-heavy dabbler, the Northern Shoveler, apparently is one of the worst-tasting ducks. Even Mallards that have been hanging out on stagnant ponds eating slime apparently taste a lot worse than Mallards that have been getting fat in flooded rice fields.

On the other hand the shore- and mud flat-feeding Marbled Godwit was a great favorite of hunters in the 1800’s.

Here’s an on topic curiosity from 1919.

[Finagle]

@Tamerlane

Here’s an on topic curiosity from 1919.

That’s horrific; it reads like a menu generated from an eBird posting. Also frustrating, because it mentions egret at the bottom of the second page, but the conclusion is on a third, unavailable page.

I do note that according to your cite, heron is quite tasty, so maybe there is some advantage to mimicking the egret.

[Colibri]

@Finagle

Also frustrating, because it mentions egret at the bottom of the second page, but the conclusion is on a third, unavailable page.

The article on fishy taste in birds is complete. Those two lines at the bottom of page 101 are the beginning of a different, unrelated article.

[Finagle]

@Colibri

The article on fishy taste in birds is complete. Those two lines at the bottom of page 101 are the beginning of a different, unrelated article.

Interesting. I wonder if they didn’t mention egrets because they were inedible or because by 1919 they’d been practically wiped out of existence to make hats.

[snowthx]

Standing idly by, preening and yawning.

They’re just lazy parents. If they have their way, they’ll have no egrets.

[Colibri]

@Finagle

Interesting. I wonder if they didn’t mention egrets because they were inedible or because by 1919 they’d been practically wiped out of existence to make hats.

“Egret” isn’t a technical term, incidentally. Some members of the genus Egretta are called egrets (like the Snowy Egret), while others like the Little Blue Heron are not. And some species that are called egrets, like the Great Egret and Cattle Egret, belong to different genera. In general, “egret” is applied to species of herons that are white or at least have a white phase (like Reddish Egret).

[Tom_Tildrum]

Egregiously bad. Often derided as “hillbilly heron.”