Mystery Bird #7 - The answer

Monthly challenge to test and improve your bird identification skills.
User avatar
sav
Posts: 929
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 9:49 am
Location: Havelock North
Contact:

Mystery Bird #7 - The answer

Postby sav » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:34 pm

Despite the cow, no-one was fooled into thinking it was a Cattle Egret - so well done!

So it has to be a Great Egret (White Heron) or an Intermediate Egret (also a white heron I'd have thought!!). The bird does look rather small, and doesn't appear to have the normal long and snakey neck of a Great Egret, but as most (13 out of 16) realised, the line of the gape extends well past the eye. This characteristic is an absoute clincher for Great Egret, and that is indeed what it is: photographed by Neil at Miranda, next to the shorebird centre, on the 10th Sept 2010.

More next month. Maybe something a little more tricky.........
cheers
Sav Saville
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ
Great Birds, Real Birders

Return to “Mystery Bird ID Quiz”