Mick, Mike et al.,
I am not sure if I just imagine ornamental plumes on the hindneck? If so, they
would already rule out Intermediate Egret and some other candidates. I also
think the long and slender bill wouldn't really fit to an Intermediate Egret.
In the field Intermediate looks to me always like a "hybrid between Great Egret
and Cattle Egret".
I also don't like the bill shape for the Indian Ocean form of Western Reef
Egret (schistacea). And the bird is definitely too elegant to be an Eastern
Reef Egret. I have no experience with Chinese Egret...
I think this bird does not really look bad for a juvenile Little Egret - even
of the Australian ssp. immaculata.
However, my reputation is that I like to confuse things! Here we go: Your bird
strongly reminds me of the infamous "Stanpit egret" described in an article by
Graham Armstrong in Birding World 1998. This bird - in direct comparison to
"normal" juv. Little Egrets - was never identified to species level!
Cheers,
Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
----- Original Message ----
From: Mick Roderick <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Cc: Allan Richardson <>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:54:33 PM
Subject: Little Egret with yellow legs and feet
Hi all,
There was an interesting Little Egret at Mason Park (Sydney) today with yellow
feet and olive-yellow colouring on the legs (particularly the back of the
legs). A couple of (poor) images can be seen at:
http://s178.photobucket.com/albums/w248/Brewerbackpacker/Egret/
Has anybody else noticed Little Egrets with this much yellow in the legs? All
of the references I looked at failed to really mention this, though I did find
a line in HANZAB saying "Sometimes legs and feet, greenish-yellow" (which is
referenced to Coates's "The Birds of Papua New Guinea Vol 1.").
I did entertain the possibility of it being a nominate race bird, but have
discounted that now (unless someone can convince me otherwise). I have other
fotos, but none of high quality.
The Pectoral Sandpiper was still present, along with 2 PGPlovers and a Latham's
Snipe.
Mick Roderick
Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail
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