When we visited the Churute Mangroves southeast of Guayaquil, Ecuador I was hoping to see new species of birds, but instead was seeing white ibis, roseate spoonbills and great blue herons, all birds I've seen in Florida and Texas. Then as I went home and submitted a photo to iNaturalist I was surprised to see "Cocoi heron" instead of great blue heron show up in the identification.
As I see the distribution of great blue herons I see they are found over most of North and Central America. They are also found in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. The distribution of Cocoi herons is virtually all of South America. It appears that the main differences are the great blue heron has a brownish neck and reddish thighs while a Cocoi heron has a white neck, white thighs and a black cap. I did not take a lot of photos because I thought they were great blue herons.
Oh no, does this mean that even when you see a bird you think you can identify, you're going to take a lot of pictures "just in case"?
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