I just added three more photos of the egret in question to my ebird report.
In my rush to get something out I overlooked two that have the neck more
extended.
Sally Hill
Eugene Oregon
On Sun, Dec 23, 2018 at 7:35 AM Sally Hill <1sallyhill.9@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I must say that I have never really bothered to examine Great Egrets here
locally to the extent that I have noticed whether the gape line extends
beyond the eye or not. I spent some time yesterday looking for other
GREG’s that had the gape line end at the eye and not extent beyond. I
could not find one, but the egrets were a fair distance away and seeing
that feature clearly was difficult . It seems like it would be fairly
easy to determine whether there is local variation in the gape line, and if
so that would tend to point away from Intermediate.
I believe that any buffiness in my photos is attributable to the brown
vegetation in the foreground. BTW my spouse Dave shot the photos as he has
the honkin lens.
Sally Hill
On Dec 22, 2018, at 7:04 AM, Jeff Gilligan <jeffgilligan10@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
photo of a UFO and wanting others to confirm that we aren’t seeing
We are all still at the shock stage. Perhaps its like seeing a good
something we aren’t.
Intermediate Egret.
The recent photos look entirely convincing for the bird to be an
probably accurate, and anything that can get to The Aleutians can get to
Maybe though we should not be so shocked. The very old B.C.record is
Oregon.
shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jeff Gilligan
On Dec 21, 2018, at 11:00 PM, Shawneen Finnegan <
with Sally’s new photos from today. The first to respond is Kevin Zimmer
I sent a message out to various folks who lead tours in Africa and Asia
who leads for VENT.
looking for a Cattle Egret. Now the soonest we can return is the 24th.
We looked for it last Sunday without success when we thought we were
consistent with an identification of Intermediate Egret. It would be nice
Crazy...
Hi Shawneen -
From what I can see in these photos, I’d say that your egret is
to see it with its neck extended to get a better idea of relative neck
length. I see a fair number of Intermediate Egrets in Africa, and the
separation of that species from Great Egret is not always straightforward,
particularly at a distance. There have been a number of times when, at a
distance, I took a smaller, shorter-billed bird to be an Intermediate
Egret, only to discover when I got closer, that it was a Great Egret —
these likely represented females, which are known, on average, to be
smaller and shorter-billed than males.
line relative to the eye. In Great Egret (at least the subspecies found in
The one mark that I rely on in Africa, is the extension of the gape
eastern Africa), the gape always extends noticeably beyond the rear edge of
the eye. In Intermediate, it extends only to the rear edge of the eye (at
most). The gape line on the Oregon bird is consistent with that of the
Intermediate Egrets that I have studied in the field, and wrong for Great
Egret. My one caveat with respect to this mark, is that I can’t really say
that I’ve paid attention to the length of the gape in North American Great
Egrets, to see if it consistently extends beyond the eye as it does in the
African populations. After all, on this continent, there is no expected ID
contender for which that mark becomes an issue!
than I would expect from Great Egret, and the bill looks to be on the short
The Oregon bird also looks to have a more rounded profile to the crown
side for that species as well. I am curious about what appears to be some
remnant patches of buff coloration in the plumage (or is that the optical
effect of wind-blown grass in the foreground?), almost like what you would
expect from a Cattle Egret in transition.
Egret, although I would be hesitant to bet the farm on it without having
In summary, I see no obvious reason discounting an ID of Intermediate
seen it in the field, and especially where it could be compared directly
with obvious Great Egrets.
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