Grey Heron in spread-wing posture, Roath Park Lake, Cardiff
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Grey Heron in spread-wing posture, Roath Park Lake, Cardiff by Robin Drayton as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Grey Heron in spread-wing posture, Roath Park Lake, Cardiff
Image: © Robin Drayton Taken: 17 Jul 2013
On an island at the northern end of the lake. There seems to be some uncertainty as to the reason for this posture with spread wings, a stretched neck, beak open and puffed up belly feathers. Suggestions being for the drying of feathers, thermoregulation or to make parasites more active in order to make preening easier. This was a hot sunny day with a late morning temperature of 25 degrees centigrade. A couple of seconds after this picture the heron had folded its wings and returned to its usual posture http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3563178 . A short distance from this bird, another was seen hunting for prey http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3563181 .
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.513127
Longitude
-3.174553