Mystery Bird #7 - The answer
Posted: 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
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