Tony Bailey sought the identification of a strange Egret he saw and photographed at Coombabah Swamp on the Gold Coast on 11 August. The bird resembled a cross between a White-faced Heron and a Little Egret as it had mainly white underparts but with grey on the head, neck and upperparts. I suggested to him that it was a dark morph Little Egret. He returned to the site today and by comparison with a typical Little Egret confirmed that identity and obtained more photos. I have placed one photo on the Eremaea Birds Australia’s Birdline for Central & Southern Queensland. Although this variable dark colour morph is known from Asia, (it is illustrated in the 2005 edition of Viney, Phillipps & Ying, Birds of Hong Kong & Southern China), I am not aware of any previous reports from Australia. It seems probable that this particular mutant originated in Australia rather than Asia. It is also atypical in that its legs are yellow rather than black. It may be more than coincidence that a somewhat similar looking strange Little Egret/White-faced Heron was recently photographed at Parry’s Lagoon near Wyndham in WA. The ID of that bird is being debated.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
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I know this is a little ‘old’ now but I was wondering if the unusual egret observed and photographed recently on the Gold Coast, SE Qld, has been seen again in the past few days.
The reason I ask is that previously I had voiced my opinion that the bird was a form of the Pied Heron, possibly a young juvenile. Since then I have been privileged to see some more of the photos taken of this bird and I now am happy to agree with Mike Carter’s thoughts on it being a Little Egret. I am now happy to accept it is probably from the Little Egret Egretta garzetta complex but I am not convinced it is a form of the subspecies nigripes, the subspecies we ‘normally’ see here in Australia.
Also, a request for more information about the actual location in the “Coombabah swamp” the bird was seen was made on BirdingAus a few days ago. Has that request been met? If so, is it possible for that information to be made public? I have been considering travelling down from near the Sunshine Coast to try for some photos but other commitments and the weather have been holding me back. It would make the idea of such a trip more appealing if there was positive evidence of the bird being still there. The Coombabah Swamp (I presume that is in the vicinity of Coombabah Lake) appears to be quite large and without many obvious tracks. So, a few guide lines to the most likely spot where the bird might be would be a great help. Please.
Bob Inglis Sandstone Point Qld ===============================
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Well I can’t argue with the chemistry of pigmentation you expressed here because it is over my head but I will question your science. I dispute your initial premise that the leg colour is abnormal and therefore due to ‘leukism’ or leucism if there is such a word. Yellow in the legs is not abnormal in a juvenile Little Egret. I’ll post another photo of the Gold Coast bird on Eremaea Australia.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
Hi Mike et al.,
You are right that I was a bit too adamant since I only got to see this one picture. Looking at this particular picture, however, the bird still doesn’t look like a Little Egret to me. Maybe a look at some more pictures would help!
Cheers,
Nikolas
Interesting that you can be so adamant Nikolas, just by viewing a single image. I can see nothing odd in the jizz (but jizz is always a subjective value anyway), bill shape looks typical to me, as does bill colour. Leg length and leg colour vary within this species and in my experience are within the range expected in juvenile Little Egret. I do perhaps have two advantages over you. Firstly, I have seen additional images of this bird and that I recently went through the exercise of having to ID difficult Little Egrets at the Eastern Treatment Plant here in Melbourne. I wrote a discussion paper on that problem and possibly posted it somewhere, perhaps on BOCA’s web site or BIRDING-AUS. I must direct you to it or send you a copy. I have also had the task of distinguishing, describing and analysing Western Reef Egret on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Regarding my previous posting on why it isn’t a Pied Heron I failed to make clear that that species is considerably smaller than Little Egret whereas this individual was similar in size to another, a typical bird, also present.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
One more thing: I am well aware that pigmentation in birds is way more complicated than in mammals (e.g. humans have only two pigments eumelanin and pheomelanin). However, even in birds the black pigment is melanin (eumelanin). Therefore – if the dark morph theory was right – this bird must have undergone two independent mutations localized to different body regions: melanism of a part of its trunk and wings and leukism of its legs – very unlikely. Moreover, since the bird also morphologically doesn’t look like a Little Egret at all (morphologically it resembles more a schistacea or even remotely an Eastern Reef Heron – see my e-mail below) this bird is not a Little Egret. My guess is still: most likely a hybrid (possibly Little x Eastern Reef?).
Cheers,
Nikolas
Hi all,
Had a look at this bird at eremaea. This bird is clearly not a dark morph Little Egret. Neither overall jizz, overall plumage coloration, bill shape, bill color, leg length nor leg color fit that ID. Either it is a very funny (escaped) schistacea (NOT gularis!) Western Reef Egret or a hybrid.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Armstrong, G.(1998): The Stanpit Egret. Birding World 11: 318-320.
Back in the 1990’s I recall there was an odd egret seen in the UK that was eventually determined to be a probable Reef Egret/Little Egret hybrid.
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