Mick is correct about the only other report of Purple Heron in Australia. A juvenile was seen by the late Phoebe Snetzinger, Ben King and Hugh Buck on 23 August 1991 (Andrew 1997; Johnstone & Darnell 2004a; Gentile 2009; B. King in litt.). Although no description or specific locality was given, this record of a distinctive species came independently from very experienced observers so is likely to be valid. However, no submission to BARC was ever made, nor does one seem likely. Therefore, it has not been added to the Australian list so far. In correspondence with Ian McAllan, Ben King said he has no field notes to base a submission on and does not recall sufficient details. Ian and I accept the record as valid in our forthcoming review of CI birds (submitted to AFO). Mick is also correct that I removed it (and lots of other unconfirmed species) from the supplementary list in the most recent BARC Checklist of Australian Birds based on the IOC list. That is because of the following change to the supplementary list: “The Supplementary List has been reduced to exclude unverified reports that have not been formally documented to a satisfactory standard …” It would be great to see this new Herdsman Lake record of Purple Heron submitted to BARC for appraisal, based on the photos but with a few supporting details of observer, date, location and circumstances. Cheers, David James Sydney ============================== ===============================
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