Little Egrets are quite interesting, so definitely worth discussion. I have
a photo of a nominate bird from the Leanyer Sewage Ponds on my ntbirds
website:
http://ntbirds.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=3
Generally, they have similar feet in all stages, breeding, non-breeding,
though the contrast is less in immatures and non-breeding as the legs are
less black and the feet a little less yellow. The facial skin is always
bluer/greener than on our local birds but generally this too is duller in
non-breeding, just like the yellow/pink on our birds is less intense in
non-breeding.
Of more interest to me at the moment is foot colour of the local race. It
seems that the soles of the feet in breeding birds in the top end are
either entirely black or have so little yellow as to make it impossible to
see even with good views. Any comments on that - is it the same with
southern birds? Or is it just one of those very variable things, and I just
never get to see the ones with yellow soles. In non-breeding the soles are
yellowish, sometimes almost the whole foot is yellowish or at least pale,
with yellow-pale often running extensively up the back of the leg,
sometimes quite sharply in contrast with the rest of the leg colour.
Niven
On 15 October 2012 13:35, Paul G Dodd <> wrote:
> Hi Mick,
>
> Always good to open a can of worms :)
>
> Interestingly, there were three other Little Egrets in the same pond with
> completely black legs and feet. Through bins the feet appeared much
> yellower, so I was surprised when I looked at the pictures on my computer -
> especially since I was expecting the "walked through a can of paint" look.
>
> I spent hours looking through my Asian field guides, and they were all
> suitably vague about how much yellow the feet should have. Pizzey and
> Knight refers to the sole of the immaculata/nigripes race being yellow -
> but a very difficult field mark. This bird certainly has yellow feet and a
> yellow tinge to the legs.
>
> I'll be interested to hear other opinions too.
>
> Paul Dodd
> Docklands, Victoria
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 15/10/2012, at 1:51 PM, Mick Roderick <> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Well, we haven't a decent Little Egret discussion for a while, so why
> not open the can of worms?
> >
> > I am not so sure that the "nominate" Little Egret posted by Paul and
> Ruth from WTP yesterday is such. I have seen nigripes/immaculata Little
> Egrets look very much like this bird. There was a lengthy discussion on
> this topic back in March 2008 after I saw a similar bird in Sydney. If you
> dare, see the beginning of that thread at
> http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2008-03/msg00456.htmlwhich
> includes some images of that bird and comments from many people. Note
> that I never claimed that bird as a potential nominate bird (I discounted
> that notion as I mentioned on the email) - I was just eager for comment on
> 'Aussie' Little Egrets with yellow-tinged feet and legs.
> >
> > Others expressed that they had seen nigripes/immaculata with legs and
> feet like the Sydney bird (and like the Birdline bird from yesterday).
> There are apparently also differences in the gape (per Mike Carter's
> comments on the 2005 Fogg Dam bird) but this isn't visible in the Birdline
> image.
> >
> > I would expect a nominate bird to have completely yellow feet, like (and
> borrowing an analogy here) it had walked through 2cm of yellow paint.
> >
> > What do others think?
> >
> > Mick
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