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Krabi River & Mudflats, Nov 2017 (1 Viewer)

TwiddlingThumbs

Well-known member
Photos 1 & 2 - Same bird. Could this be a Chinese Egret? Looks like it has greenish legs and yellow feet.

Photo 3 - Eurasian Curlew?

Photo 4 - Not sure what tern. Its beak seems odd.

Photo 5 - From left to right : Little Tern, not sure, Bar-tailed Godwit, Little Tern and Greater Crested Tern?

Will have more to post.

Help appreciated!
 

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I don't have experience of Chinese Egret but I suspect you're right. Hopefully someone with more experience can confirm.

No. 3 is a Eurasian Curlew.

The tern in no. 4 seems to have a broken lower mandible. Non-breeding terns are difficult - I suspect it's a Common Tern.

In no. 5, I think you have 2 Little Terns, a Common Tern, a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Lesser Crested Tern.
 
Thanks for your help, Andy!

How did you identify that as a Lesser Crested Tern? Was it the colour of the bill or the relative size to the Godwit? I should have checked. Just realized that published size of the Greater Crested Tern is about 7 - 8cm larger than the Godwit.
 
Egret looks good for Chinese i think - my min concern is eliminating Pacific Reef Egret, but I think you are safe calling this one Chinese (note legs are dark at the front & pale at the rear, which is classic Chinese).

The tern is indeed Common.
 
Thanks for your help, Andy!

How did you identify that as a Lesser Crested Tern? Was it the colour of the bill or the relative size to the Godwit? I should have checked. Just realized that published size of the Greater Crested Tern is about 7 - 8cm larger than the Godwit.

The colour of the bill - it looks yellow-orange to me, rather than yellow-green - the colour of the upperparts - Greater Crested has a darker back - and the fact that the wings don't protrude beyond the tip of the tail much. Having said that, the image is rather washed-out, which makes assessing colours difficult, so I'm not 100% sure. The bill also looks large, but that could be the angle. I would beware of making size comparisons from a wide-angle shot like this one, as size distortion occurs.

You do get difficult individuals, though - check this one out:

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Lesser-or-Great-Crested-Tern-again
 
Thanks for the pointers, Andy!

These two photos are taken with a different camera from the photo I posted. These are probably the only two full on side views of the terns. The bill still looks yellow-orange in these photos. I think the bill in the first photo is not as chunky as a Greater Crested Tern though the second photo looks a little larger.
 

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Hi all,
the GCT/ swift terns in the Persian Gulf are very distinctive in appearance compared to other races. A lot of lesser crested terns are intermediate in size between common and sandwich terns, few are rarely bigger than sandwich tern and many are wrongly captioned on the web.
Also the egret is ERH not Chinese IMO. This bird has the normal leg colours of a percentage of white morph ERH. Fortunately it is the dark morph of ERH that often but not always shows the lime-green coloured legs.
 
Hi all,
the GCT/ swift terns in the Persian Gulf are very distinctive in appearance compared to other races. A lot of lesser crested terns are intermediate in size between common and sandwich terns, few are rarely bigger than sandwich tern and many are wrongly captioned on the web.
Also the egret is ERH not Chinese IMO. This bird has the normal leg colours of a percentage of white morph ERH. Fortunately it is the dark morph of ERH that often but not always shows the lime-green coloured legs.

The Egret is a Chinese. Note loral colour and shape, bill shape and leg length, the feet on a flying ERH barely extend beyond the tail tip.
 
I'm attaching photos here of a white morph ERH I shot in Darwin, Australia in August for comparison which I believe fits with what Mark mentioned regarding loral colour and bill shape. The legs on a ERH looks much stockier than the ones on the bird I posted.
 

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Hi TT& Rockfowl, the reef egrets that scavenge under your table whilst drinking coffee on the Queensland coast are very heron like. The cline is such that when the flip over to western reef egret occurs like in the Persian Gulf, the reef egrets here have a shape close to little egret. The feet projection in photo#4 IMO are exactly as ERE should be! The lores vary in colour and there are least three colour sequences based on age and seasonality. The bill significantly also has the typical curved culmen of ERE.

IMO precludes altercation but if anybody from Hong Kong who sees CE monthly and identifies these as CE. I would concede, identification graciously. Bird forum egrets postings have confused even experienced observers and out of season CE identification is very cutting edge.
 
IMO precludes altercation but if anybody from Hong Kong who sees CE monthly and identifies these as CE. I would concede, identification graciously. Bird forum egrets postings have confused even experienced observers and out of season CE identification is very cutting edge.

I don't think Hong Kong is the place to look here. We typically get Chinese in only a narrow season in late spring (mostly May), when birds are usually in breeding plumage. Autumn records are very rare, winter records are unknown. Also, we don't have white-phase Reef Egrets for comparison.

In fact, rather than adding anything to the conversation I've been watching this thread to try to pick up some ID tips from those more familiar with these species!
 
Bryon,
With my level of experience (read as inexperience), I cannot discount any opinions (David & Mark for, and you against CE) by you gentlemen. As you suggested, it would be great if someone with more contact or experience with Chinese Egret can chime in as well.

Just like John, I'm trying to learn and pick up ID tips but it seems that it is much more complicated.
 
Hi TT,
understand your predicament. I brought HK. into the equation because it is one of the few places that I have personally had unbridled access to blue-lored CE. Thought there may have been some who remember them breeding in the region!
 
FWIW Guys, I see Chinese Egret in both breeding and non-breeding plumage in China and variable plumage in Thailand in winter every year but by no means monthly. Perhaps Dave B will catch the thread and have a look, I'll prompt him.
 
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FWIW Guys, I see Chinese Egret in both breeding and non-breeding plumage in China and variable plumage in Thailand in winter every year but by no means monthly. Perhaps Dave B will catch the thread and have a look, I'll prompt him.

Just to chip in, Dave B does have a couple of blog posts up about this already:

https://digdeep1962.wordpress.com/2...-in-malaysia-where-when-and-how-to-find-them/
http://digdeep1962.blogspot.tw/2008/10/

We get Chinese Egrets here in winter as well as on passage (the attached was taken yesterday), but I don't recall having seen white morph Pacific Reef Egret. I would still favour Chinese for the bird in #1, though, as I expect Pacific Reef Egret would show shorter, thicker, and brighter legs than this individual.
 

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Hi Steve,
have you got any more egret pics, you can post, showing full neck and leg length?

Hi Bryon,

Of this individual, no, just one further shot showing the feet. This bird was crouched facing into a gale force wind, and flew over to the other side of the mud flats once it realised I was 'onto' it.

Though they're probably of little use in this context, I do have summer-plumaged birds I can add. Personally, I find Chinese Egret to appear to be a bit shorter legged than Little Egret anyway, which probably does not help matters where separation from Pacific Reef Egret is concerned!

Steve
 

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