I am still trying to determine if this is just a very pale, or perhaps an albino, Great Blue Heron or a different but similar bird. So first I am checking out definitions from the internet, to wit:
Defining a species
A species is often defined as a group of individuals that actually or potentially interbreed in nature.
In this sense, a species is the biggest
gene pool possible under natural conditions.
For example, these happy face spiders
look different, but since
they can interbreed, they are considered the same species:
Theridion
grallator.
That definition of a species might seem cut
and dried, but it is not — in nature, there are lots of places
where it is difficult to apply this definition. For example,
many bacteria reproduce mainly asexually. The bacterium shown
at right is reproducing asexually, by binary fission. The definition
of a species as a group of interbreeding individuals cannot
be easily applied to organisms that reproduce only or
mainly asexually.
Also, many plants, and some animals, form hybrids in nature.
Hooded crows and carrion crows look different, and largely mate within
their own groups — but in some areas, they hybridize. Should they be
considered the same species or separate species?
