I am convinced that the bird labeled a Cattle Egret is not one. After getting
the message from an expert on western Asian birds, I am seriously considering
Swinhoe’s (Chinese) Egret as a possibility. I cannot see why it isn’t one.
A Swinhoe’s Egret (better name than Chinese because they are not restricted to
China) has made it to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands (as has Little Egret and
Intermediate Egret). If one can make it to the Aleutians, one can make it to
Oregon. Keep taking photos. Stranger things have happened, though not many.
There may be a good reason why we have been struggling with the photos of this
bird.
On Sep 12, 2017, at 9:22 AM, Matt Cahill <matt.c.cahill@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi all,
I went and watched the herons and egrets at the Narrows yesterday afternoon
for about an hour. All of the suspect birds were in attendance - the snowy
egret was in the eastern pond, the cattle egret / little blue were in the
small pond between the road sections.
As many have surmised, it's a surprisingly difficult ID on those two small
egrets-herons. There's plenty of photos and comments on plumage already. I'd
add to the discussion, the 'personalities' of the two birds were quite
different. The suspect little blue behaved much more cautiously than the
cattle egret, moving more slowly around the pond and watching the water with
it's neck extended for long periods of time. The cattle egret arrived after I
did, and immediately set forth hunting the pond, covering the same shoreline
as the little blue in a fraction of the time. I watched it aggressively chase
the little blue several times, and bully it for a fish meal.
Not that individuals of the same species can't have different personalities,
nor to deny the subjectivity involved, but those 'personalities' matched my
expectations for both birds. I spent lots of hours in the Florida Keys
watching little blues and they always appeared coy and bookish. And cattle
egrets, well they can sure seem like bullies to me.
My ebird checklist is here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39142883 ;
<http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39142883>
No herons of any species were at the Narrows this morning around 8, but it
was early still. 30+ greater yellowlegs were standing around.
Good birding,
Matt Cahill
Bend
