Chinese Egret (non-breeding) at San Simon Pampanga

Wooooooohoooooo. COngrats on this rare lifer Doc! Great catch!

A very rewarding break indeed docchito!

First for me to see a life size image of this bird.

I was just consoling myself as I might be working during most of this long weekend. . Thanks Edu, Toto, and Bong. Here's another one for you Guys.

Canon 1D MkII 300 mm F4 IS 2x Tc 1/500 f14 iso 160 handheld

Chito

Yay! Doc Chito, If your photos are already full frame, how much more if Neon uses his 600+2x TC?

I will surely be pixel peeping with his captures!

All the indications (greenish face, green legs and feet, bill) point strongly to a Chinese Egret.

Reference:



Congrats Doc! Lovely shots to boot!

Hi Neon, That was also my first impression but I noticed the legs even up to the thigh area were green, the little egret have usually all black legs with more prominent feet, as it is markedly contrasted (yellow to greenish feet to the black legs). Here is some description of the chinese egret's leg in a korean bird site-http://www.birdskorea.org/Birds/Key_Species/BK-KS-Chinese-Egret.shtml
"Chinese Egret leg colour is pea-soup green, with poorly defined yellower feet, and often blacker markings on the shins, to the rear of the shins, and occasionally at the knee joint."
Likewise here are some pics of the legs of the little egret fully exposed. www.birding.in/birds/Ciconiiformes/Ardeidae/little_egret.htm
The greenish facial mask and bicolored bill (2/3 light and black1/3) also I think support that it is the chinese egret. I noticed also that it looked larger than the little egret more the size of the intermediate egret. The other differential for this bird would be the white phase of the reef egret which may also have green legs. A nice discussion on this differentiation can be found here
www.orientalbirdclub.org/publications/bullfeats/chinegrt.html

I hope this clears up some, if not, then it at least serves my motto " If you can't convince them, confuse them"

Thanks Bobby for the comments and the reference pic.

Cheers

Chito

Hi Doc Chito,

If you base your ID with the above descriptions it's a CE then but one description that is not included above is the tarsus should be longer than the bill.

By getting a ruler the tarsus of your photo is approximately equal or less than the length of its bill. While Bobby's photo shows a longer tarsus. So from this parameter your bird might not be a Chinese egret. Still confused...hehehe

Thanks Alain, The CE has however been described also in rice fields between migrations. We may just have to look a little closer on those "little egrets" in the rice fields.

Neon, I am not sure of your source of the bill/tarsus (leg) information, but I did see this info in Birds of Southeast Asia by Craig Robson page 69, where he uses this as basis of comparison between the Pacific Reed Egret (white morph non-breeding) and the Chinese Egret (non-breeding) but not the Little Egret. The book says " the Pacific Reed Egret is very like the chinese egret but it's legs is shorter (of the pacific RE) tarsus always shorter than the bill". But it further adds that the bill is thicker and less pointed etc. also in P RE in flight only a small amount of the feet projects beyond the tail tip. This was not so on this bird. Having seen the dark phase of the P RE i doubt this was the bird I saw, the bill and the flight appearance just doesn't match. Thus the 2 most common differentials eliminated, i determined that it was the CE. Jokingly one name I thought to resolve this confusion is to call all similar birds as Little Chinese Reef-Egret. ;D
Thanks

Chito

Yes Bobby This bird was also alone and would actively drive away other egrets when it hunts. Are there many birds at Olango?