Egret, Suffolk UK (1 Viewer)

I saw this bird on my local patch earlier today. It flew up into a distant tree, sat there for a while then dropped to the ground and disappeared from sight. In flight my impression was that it was a big bird, and the first picture is intended to give an impression of its size at range. The other two are mega crops to try and get some features on the bird itself. In the field my impression was that the bird was a Great White Egret, but I'm having doubts on what can be seen of the bill. It appears to have pale yellow base to the lower mandible and a dark/greyish upper mandible. It also looks shortish, but that may just be a combination of not being able to see a dark tip to the bill and/or it being foreshortened. My doubts are partly because I don't think I've ever seen a GWE with anything other than a bright orange/yellow bill and partly because it would be a mega patch tick!

Any views/opinions/impressions gratefully received.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but if I'd had better views the ID wouldn't have been a problem!

Stuart

Has the look of a Cattle Egret.. but I think it's a Little Egret.. Cattle Egrets are usually seen in the company of others.. There's nothing which says Great White Egret to me..

little in my opinion

Little for me too.

Thanks for the input so far. If it's a little egret, how does that square with the yellow on the bill?

StuartReeves said:

Thanks for the input so far. If it's a little egret, how does that square with the yellow on the bill?

Click to expand...

I think your seeing the light underside of the bill which darkens to the tip.. I don't think the full length of the bill is visible in the picture which gives it the shorter bill look of a Cattle egret.. You always have colour variations in the bills of birds as seasons change and the younger ones mature...