The thing that made me wonder about any geographic variation in the soles
of the nigripes feet in breeding plumage was that all of the Top End birds
I'd managed to get to lift their feet had (completely and uniformly) dark
soles, where HANZAB says the soles in breeding birds are 'straw-yellow',
which seems reasonable given the colour in non-breeding. It may be that the
HANZAB reference is a bit of a red herring?
On 15 October 2012 20:15, Robert Inglis <> wrote:
> I speak from the point of view of someone who can’t tell a plume from a
> hackle but...........
>
> I have taken a few photos of Little Egrets in Australia (ok, mainly SE
> Qld) so..........
>
> I don’t see anything particularly unusual about the Little Egret depicted
> in the photo attached to Paul Dodd and Ruth Woodrow’s report of a Little
> Egret (possibly nominate species) on the Victoria page of Eremaea’s
> Birdline website.
> I would like to say, however, that the birding world could do well with
> more such images; it may not win the ANZANG first prize in any category
> but, boy/girl(!), does it say a lot! Note how this bird has crossed its
> legs to adjust its balance.
>
> Anyhow..............
> A quick review of my many Little Egret Images tells me that this
> particular bird is pretty close to ‘average’ compared with the Little
> Egrets I have photographed over the past few years.
> Note that I am talking about the Little Egrets normally found in
> Australia. On that point, I am curious about why it has been decided that
> the Little Egrets ‘normally found in Australia’ should be labelled “ssp
> nigripes” rather than “ssp immaculata” (that sounds a bit religious to me,
> although, they are beautiful and usually so neat). But that’s another
> argument.
>
> Briefly, my experience has been that Little Egrets ‘normally found in
> Australia’ (including adult breeding but more on that later), in general,
> have ‘light coloured’ soles to their feet with dark uppers. Incidentally,
> it might turn out to be a minor diagnostic feature but I am working on that.
> The colour most people seem to use in their description of the soles is
> “yellow” but I see something different: I see greenish-yellow. I chose my
> parents so that I would have very good colour perception. You don’t have to
> believe that but I will pray for you.
>
> Seriously..........
>
> Niven McCrie made a good point when he said:
> “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.”
>
> Back to me............
> My photos seem to show that the degree of yellow/greenish-yellow on the
> soles of the feet may vary from breeding to non-breeding with breeding
> having almost (note) completely black feet, soles and uppers. My photos
> show that, in breeding stage, the soles are sometimes so dark that it can
> be hard to see the very faint hint of a lighter colour.
>
> In non-breeding stage the amount and extent of yellow (for want of a
> better description) can vary considerably. On some birds the light colour
> is obviously confined to the very soles but on other birds the feet are are
> almost completely light coloured (I nearly wrote “yellow”).
> Whether this variation in the degree and extent of light colour is
> dependant on the age of the particular bird is difficult to ascertain as it
> is also difficult to ascertain the age of ‘young’ egrets. And that’s
> another “another argument”.
>
> So far I have only provided words but I am working on visual evidence to
> back up my statements and I ask that you all be generous with your
> patience; I hope to have some images on my website soon to show just what I
> am talkin’ about.
>
> This is such a good topic!
>
> Bob Inglis
> Sandstone Point
> Qld
> Australia
>
>
>
>
>
> ===============================
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
>
> http://birding-aus.org
> ===============================
>
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
