Little Egret with yellow legs and feet

[Nikolas Haass <>]

Jeff, Mike, Mick,

No, short blunt ornamental feathers occur in juvenile Little Egrets - thus, 
they don't rule out a juvenile. On the other side, this is not important since 
Mick didn't see ornamental feathers on "his bird" anyway.

I still think this bird does not really look bad for a juvenile Little Egret - 
even of the Australian ssp. immaculata - as I said in the earlier mail.

My comment about the Stanpit bird, which has a similar colour pattern of the 
bare parts, was more ment to make fun of myself. 

Nikolas

 
----------------
Nikolas Haass

Sydney, NSW


----- Original Message ----
From: Jeff Davies <>
To: Nikolas Haass <>; Mick Roderick <>; 
Birding Aus <>
Cc: Allan Richardson <>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:06:48 AM
Subject: Little Egret with yellow legs and feet

G'day Nikolas, what aspect of this bird looks aberrant to you for Australian
Little Egret and strongly reminds you of the "Stanpit Bird" which was
suspected of being a possible hybrid with Western Reef Egret??.

Cheers Jeff.

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Nikolas Haass
Sent: Wednesday, 19 March 2008 11:45 PM
To: Mick Roderick; Birding Aus
Cc: Allan Richardson
Subject: Little Egret with yellow legs and feet

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


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