Now, my little poser from last Saturday. There were 5 egrets present, and I thought at the time one or 2 might be Intermediates given they are reasonably common and often turn up with Greats. However, not all 5 were in view at the one time, so I thought I’d take a close look at the photos, assuming I’d got all 5 at one moment or other. The 2 on left are from another time, and show, I think, the key differences. The Great has a rather snaky head and that sharp triangle of bare skin extending behind the eye, the Intermediate has squarer bare skin not going behind the eye and a more domed head. On the right are enlargements from my numbered pic showing the 2 most likely ‘Intermediates’. The bare skin on these is kind of in-between, and both heads could be called domed. However the upper bird is not all that different from the other 2 resting birds (possibly all same age) and the very long extended neck of the lower bird could not really belong to an Intermediate. Moreover all the egrets that I could see together were about the same size as one another. I conclude that the gape and head shape by themselves are not always useful in the field. I think Harvey, Philip and Steve H, and Jude, are correct in concluding all birds shown are Greats. I shall not complicate matters by talking about the agonistic behaviour directed to one egret by others. In the nest, it was probably the parents’favourite.
