Agreed - Little Egret
The foraging habit and head architecture don't allow for the bird to be any
other Australian egret. With regard to subspecies the bird is most likely
immaculata based on the yellow lores and feet colour. According to Hancock and
Kushlan both nigripes (Indonesian ssp.) and garzetta (nominate ssp.) have
blue-grey lores. garzetta has feet and nigripes has black feet, although
occasional nigipes individuals have yellow soles to their feet, which is the
case with immaculata. No mention is made of yellow bill colour or the leg
yellow, in any age cohort, apart from the yellow occurring at the base of the
lower mandible. Nestling Little Egrets have bright yellow bills with some
black markings, but how long this colouration is held as the birds mature is
unknown.
I briefly saw a similarly marked bird at rest (neck folded) on the mid-north
coast in mangroves on the Macleay estuary a long time ago and the markings were
very boldly defined, giving the bird a mature appearance, which really threw a
spanner in the ID-ing works at the time. A bird I photographed in the same
area in 2006 has definite green patches on the rear of its heel and appears
(long distance photos) to have more than a normal amount of yellow on the feet.
Maybe this is an uncommon character that surfaces occasionally in individual
birds ? If entirely black footed nigripes occasionally exhibits yellow feet
then maybe immaculata occasionally exhibits more yellow in the legs than is
normally observed. Maybe we'll all take more than a passing glance at Little
Egret legs in the future???
Allan
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