The Purple Heron in our humble perception is the most shy of all Herons that we have photographed till date. While we have seen these birds many a times, getting close enough to get good images has always been challenging.
Purple Herons are widespread resident and winter visitors in India. They are shy and solitary hunters who prefer to stand motionless in shallow waters, adopting a stand and wait hunting strategy very effectively.
Our luck changed during our last visit to Hebbal Lake in Bangalore. We found this Purple Heron that gave us a comprehensive array of poses that helped us document its behavior. The first two images show the perfected cooling off technique of a Purple Heron while waiting for a prey to approach it and rest of the images show the dexterous use of long neck and legs to prune oneself.
All images were taken with the D300 and 300mm f2.8 lens mounted with the 2x TC.
