Little egret? The blue skin around the eyes is throwing me, my field guide doesn't mention this but I did read about it elsewhere. Thanks!
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Little egret? The blue skin around the eyes is throwing me, my field guide doesn't mention this but I did read about it elsewhere. Thanks!
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Hi and welcome to the forum. I think that that is a Little Egret, in breeding plumage. I think that the facial skin is blue only during breeding season.
Regards,
Andy.
Looks like a very large bird, it certainly appears to be an Eastern Great Egret. Little Egrets have a long head plume that extends backwards when in breeding plumage. Eastern Great Egret have green/turquoise lores during the breeding season. Also the neck is very long, about the length of the body, Little Egrets don't have such elongated necks.
Here are a few LE shots for comparison.
http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/v/ausbirds/Herons/littleeg/
Yes, I read that they get the blue (or red as well?) in breed plumage Andy.
Windhover - he does look big, but hard to get scale with no other birds around in the photo. There are Great Egrets here as well which I regularly photograph in breeding plumage, and they never have the blue around the eyes, always yellow. Just had a quick check of some recent Great Egret photos, the body itself looks plumper compared to this. I'll have a look if I have any other angles of this particular bird to post.
If it doesn't display well here you can go directly to the link: http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7169/dsc4630c.jpg
Quality is bad, sorry, was taken from very far away.
hope you don't mind me editing your picture:
I didn't crop it because I wanted to leave the duck in for some scale. Probably ineffective though.
No need for size comparison with other birds, the huge, long neck (particularly in the second photo) is certainly evidence enough that it is a breeding Eastern Great Egret not a Little Egret. :-) Cheers
It's interesting then that this is the only Great Egret I've seen with the blue colouring. All the others in breeding plumage here are the normal yellow.
The reason for the blue lores is because it IS in breeding coloration. The normal color for the lores is yellow! I am not sure who has been giving you bird advise. :-)