I've never seen a bird like this...

Hi, everyone! I'm a Dave's gardener but have not ever been a "birder"! I live in zone 8b of Texas, 65 miles west of Houston. We live on 8 acres and have a collection of guineas and 3 chickens. We've seen all kinds of "normal" birds here, but today something weird happened - actually, it's still going on. All my guineas were under a stand of trees/shrubs they freuent and started becoming very upset. If you know anything about guineas, you know how skittish and silly they can be, but they were all agitated. I went to see what it was, saw nothing, but heard an unusual sound coming from up in the trees over our heads. I didn't see anything and left them to figure it out on their own. About 5 minutes later, standing at my back door I just happeded to turn and see what looked like a "snake bird" (I haven't had a drink all day! LOL) perched on a trellis. It had a really long neck and a large (for the birds' size) pointed beak similar to < but longer. I ran in and got my binoculars and came back out around the other side of house to not scare it off, and now it had a regular "bird appearance" with no long neck! I watched it and then it stretched it's neck out again, looking at one area very carefull then it stretched it's body out and slowly flapped it's wings and flew away. Long yellowish legs (not overly long, but not our normal bird size), looked to be black or dark brown, maybe a lighter patch of color on the side of it, beak was off white and when I first saw it, it appeared to be the same size all the way from head to tail. very slender appearing bird.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to describe it as best as possible. Any ideas? I had also heard a "quiet commotion" coming from under a stand of agapanthus earlier that I couldn't identify what was making the noise - I got a water hose and sprayed it but from the other side of the trellis and never did see if anything came out. That was about an hour earlier. Like I said, my guineas are still squawking!

Thanks for any help.
Deb

Hi Deb, Maybe your talking about the Anhinga? Take a look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhinga

Heron of some sort, maybe Little Blue Heron, maybe Great Blue Heron (Anhinga doesn't have long legs!)

Resin

Hello Deb,

Maybe have a scout around the bird files here on DG (links below for the Anhinga, Great Blue Heron and Little Blue Heron). I see the GBH & LBH are listed as having been seen in Houston. The last link is to various sites where you can put in a description and hopefully come up with an answer.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/birdfiles/go/61
http://davesgarden.com/guides/birdfiles/go/494/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/birdfiles/showimage/2524/http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Identify+this+bird+from+description&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=-7N5TKP6Csaecdzo6YMG

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. None of these really looks like the bird. His beak was wider at the face - just bigger looking. I'll try the last link and I really appreciate ya'll getting back with me so quickly!
Deb

Deb,

You might also try Whatbird.com, you can plug in all sorts of information about where you're at, the shape of the bill, etc. Then they give you a list of what it might be. Come back to DG and look at the options they've given you and maybe you'll have your ID.

http://identify.whatbird.com/mwg/_/0/attrs.aspx

Good Luck!!!

Thanks, Mrs. Ed - another good place to look. I'll definitely come back and let ya'll know what I find.

you're welcome.

Here was Margaret's 4th link, it ran into the third link…


http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Identify%20this%20bird%20from%20description&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=-7N5TKP6Csaecdzo6YMG

Also might try Green Heron, Least Bittern or American Bittern.