Something caught the attention of this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) yesterday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and caused it to momentarily look up towards the sky. The upward tilt of the heron’s head helped it to be better illuminated, allowing me to capture this little environmental portrait of one of the year-round inhabitants of the refuge.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Great capture — love those feather details!
It is intriguing when birds check the sky like that…did they see something we missed, or just on the lookout. I’ve also wondered what the wading birds distance vision is. So many questions 🙋♀️. You got a great capture of this beauty!
Thanks, Ellen. You pose an interesting question about the distance vision of wading birds. Clearly they see well at short range, given the way that they can catch fish, but doesn’t mean they can see as well at long range.