From Opus

Photo by Nora
Photo taken: Kororoit Creek, Victoria, Australia.

Egretta novaehollandiae

Ardea novaehollandiae

[edit] Identification

Blue-grey, yellow legs, long, slim neck, pointed grey-black bill. and white facial markings. When breeding, the birds have long feathers (nuptial plumes) on the head, neck and back.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in southern New Guinea, New Caledonia, much of Australia except the arid interior, Tasmania and New Zealand where now found throughout North and South Islands and also on some smaller islands.

Largely resident but with much wandering and makes regular movements away from on the coast in New Zealand. Vagrants reported in the arid interior of Australia and on many islands including Sulawesi, the Moluccas and Timor, the Kai and Aru Islands off New Guinea, and Lord Howe Island, the Kermadecs, Auckland, Campbell and Macquarie Islands.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• E.n.novaehollandiae Indonesia and Australasian region
• E.n.parryi NW Australia

North-west Australian birds are darker and separated as parryi.

[edit] Habitat

Lakeshores and riverbanks, mangroves, shallow lagoons and on tidal mudflats and estuaries, sometimes rocky shores.

[edit] Behaviour

The nest is an messy shallow bowl, made of sticks and usually placed on a leafy branch.

The diet includes fish, insects and amphibians.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.

[edit] External Links