The bill is black/grey which automatically rules out Cattle Egret.
not really https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cattle_Egret/media-browser/70691061
the picture is far from perfect and the bill possibly still shorter in very young Little, without reading the other comments my choice would have been Cattle, due to the feathering going up half the mandible, now i’d say don’t know
How large is the garden? Is it little, or great? Or intermediate in size? Does it contain any cattle?I think the OP had it right, 'Garden Egret'.......
You are right as always Tom. I looked at my 'Birds of East Asia' and I have a pencilled note (from when or why I don't remember) saying 'early juv has blackish bill', although the text of the book doesn't mention this. None of the other books I have illustrate this either, though one does say that the very youn photos of what should be a post-breeding group (end of July) near my house, and no black bills visible.
I'm not offering an opinion on the identification, but for what it's worth Birds of the Western Palearctic says of Cattle Egret:
"Bill and lores at hatching pale flesh or horn (also described as green), darkening to black at 5–10 days, becoming gradually yellow during 2nd and 3rd month."
Bill