BirdingNZ.net

Answers for this challenge are due by replying to this topic by midnight (NZDT) on Friday 14 January 2011.

Click here for the rules.

Answers will not be visible to anyone else until after the closing date.

The winner of the 2010-2011 ID Quiz will get one free place on a scheduled Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ pelagic trip, AND each person who enters this challenge goes into the draw to win a pair of Nikon Travelite V 8x25CF binoculars just for having a go, thanks to Photo & Video International!

Kink in neck, black of gape extending past eye, and shallow angle of forehead all point to White Heron (Great Egret)

White heron

From Andrew Thomas

The background cattle I hope is just a good trick to put us off, I'm going with a White Heron - neck kink and black line of gape beyond the eye... at least I've got to be more on track than last months effort!

Intermediate Egret, shorter neck and smaller

White Heron/Kotuku. Although it is in a field with cattle it is too large for a Cattle Egret and it has a snakey neck. The black line of gape extends past eye so isn't an Intermediate Egret.

im going for great egret
egretta alba
the 2 key features, size and neck length are not discernable in this photo so makes its a tricky one

to assume that the other features for either intermediate or great:
the leg colour and worn filoplumes suggest transition between breeding to non-
gape extends behind eye
pale upper leg
bill length is not stubby enough to convince me of intermediate
nor is the bill red enough for an intermediate near beeding plumage.

Thats easy I thought to myself...........Cattle Egret, after all there is a cow in the picture.
But then I had a proper look and realised the neck is too long so my guess....
Intermediate Egret, Egretta intermedia.

I have been sitting mulling over this bird for days now, and I'm just as confused as ever. The only choices are intermediate egret and white heron. It "looks" smaller than a white and the neck looks like the right length for an intermediate rather than a white. But the orbital skin goes behind the eye which is a characteristic of the white heron and the line of the gape quite clearly goes some way past the eye rather than ending below it as it would in an intermediate egret. So I'm going to have to say that even though I get a good feel for intermediate egret for it on its apparent size and posture, I'm instead going to have to choose white heron (with the neck at an angle that makes it appear shorter)

Answer: white heron (great white egret if you prefer)

well i think it may be an intermediate egret

cheers mark