Do little egrets hang out on rocky coastlines?

[Patrick Crowe]

Today I was at Cape Campbell (east coast, top of the South Island) and saw what appeared to me to be a little egret. I’m not super familiar with the species but thought they were a wetland/estuarine species? Cape Campbell is a rocky cape that gets partly washed over at high tide. The bird wasn’t foraging, just roosting on a small rock stack.

Excuse the average photo, this was taken through the binos and looking directly into the sun!

[Threeps]

Hi Pat,
NZBirdsOnline reports that "Little egrets are generally solitary in New Zealand, frequenting coastal areas in preference to freshwater wetlands."
We have a recent possible record in Taranaki that was coastal.

Interestingly, the Cattle Egret, which is said to be "predominantly found in damp pasture" (NZBO) is most commonly seen in coastal areas in Taranaki. However as we have many damp pastures that extend right to the sea's edge in our coastal areas that is probably no surprise!

[benackerley]

Off that photo I would call it a Cattle egret, going off the hunched posture and short stubby bill

[andrewcrossland]

Hi Pat, do you have any other photos and can you post them at a bigger size.

While this bird looks like a lost, hunched up cattle egret (or maybe Little egret) it would be useful to see any more pics, to see it in different poses and at different angles. A species to consider when seeing a white egret in that type of habitat is white phase reef heron. Usually their heavy bi-coloured bill is really obvious (which isn't the case in this pic, but single pics can be deceiving). Awesome if you could add some more pics - big ones please !

[Paul Sagar]

Hi Pat,
We had a single cattle egret at Washdyke Lagoon on 23 May. It was roosting on a bit of debris in the middle of the lagoon surrounded by southern black-backed gulls and only 100 m from the sea. It was hunched up similar to the bird in your photo.

Cheers,
Paul

[Patrick Crowe]

[Patrick Crowe]

More photos here, all significantly cropped as I only had the binos.

Thanks for all your thoughts, as I’ve looked over the photos again, the bird does give off that classic hunched look of a cattle egret.