I was wondering if anyone has images of juvenile Pied Herons (Egretta picata)
taken at or soon after fledging. I have images of what are probably ‘immature’
Pied Herons, i.e., with bare part colours similar to that of adults, but I am
not sure I have images of true juveniles.
My reason for asking is that I am quite sure that the ‘strange’ egret/heron
currently on the Gold Coast is a juvenile Pied Heron but there doesn’t seem to
be a lot of information in the public domain about the style of the plumage of
these birds soon after fledging.
HANZAB describes the bill colour of juvenile Pied Herons as “olive-brown” and
also says that the lower mandible “develops yellow more quickly [than the upper
mandible]”.
The feet and leg colour of the juvenile Pied Heron is described, in HANZAB, as
being “yellow (57), with varying green tinge and bright yellow soles”.
The facial skin is described as “dark grey, (83) to grey (84); perhaps
sometimes paler”.
All of that, to me, fits in with the appearance of the Gold Coast bird.
(Reference: Handbook of Australian New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, Vol 1 Part
B, starting at page 974.)
A small Little Egret (55 – 65 cm) would be similar in size to a large Pied
Heron (43 – 55 cm); in the field the difference in size would appear to be
minimal. Little Egrets in the field can look quite small at times.
I have been ‘playing’ with my immature Pied Heron images and have been very
easily able to simulate the look of the bird in the initially published image
of the Gold Coast bird.
Note: I am not saying that the photos of the Gold Coast bird are fakes! They
are plainly not fakes but the low resolution makes it hard to accurately
determine the correct colours and shapes involved. The image in general has a
slightly washed out look which adds to the, possibly, unnaturally ‘pale’
appearance of this bird.
I do suspect that the plumage stage of juvenile Pied Herons has not been often
captured in photos or, maybe, even described. The tendency with
bird-photographers is to try to take good-looking photos and juveniles,
especially at or soon after fledging do not generally make for the most
appealing shots.
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
Sent from a no-brand personal desktop computer at 0835 hrs eastern standard
time 21 Aug 2011.
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