Ardea alba

Great Egret at Pambula, NSW

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Identification history

Ardea plumifera

22 Apr 2018

RossMannell

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2 comments

JackieMiles wrote:

22 Apr 2018

Hi Ross, The points in our best field guide (CSIRO one, Menkhorst et al) that suggest this is just a great egret are: legs trail further in great, and look more robust, top of head is flatter in great. Beak and leg colour is the same for both in non-breeding plumage (yellow and black respectively), so that doesn't help and the bird is too far away to make out whether the yellow extends below the eye or not ( as in great). But as two features suggest great (flat head, leg length) and intermediate is extremely rare down here, I'm going with great.

RossMannell wrote:

23 Apr 2018

Thanks Jackie. I was tossing up between the two and your description helps.

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