dantheman
Bah humbug
ie Melanistic?
Melanistic individuals do occur in many species, some more frequently than others. Doesn't mean this isn't one.
Guess you have to start looking at form and structure, bare parts etc ... ?
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Dark Egret from Spain (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Gonçalo Elias
- Start date
ie Melanistic?
Melanistic individuals do occur in many species, some more frequently than others. Doesn't mean this isn't one.
Guess you have to start looking at form and structure, bare parts etc ... ?
lou salomon
the birdonist
exactly. bill shape and nicely demarcated yellow feet with black legs, like in the OB here. i guess it's a (rare) dark form ( 
) like western reef heron has one.
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=376224&highlight=egret+vadu
) like western reef heron has one.https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=376224&highlight=egret+vadu
Don't pay attention to my comments. I'm not a birder or an expert. But...
in my opinion, in shape it resembles a white Little Egrets (black beak and yellow feet) and I see many of these around me (therefore they still exist), mixed in color with a Slate Egrets (???).
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Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
exactly. bill shape and nicely demarcated yellow feet with black legs, like in the OB here. i guess it's a (rare) dark form (
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=376224&highlight=egret+vadu
Hallelujah!! :t:
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Not sure if the grey form is melanistic, melanism usually manifests as brown, the colour of melanin?
dantheman
Bah humbug
You may be right. Melanistic though are usually black (or maybe v. dark brown). Really melanistic birds are quite rare (eg I recall a Kestrel once here on BF?). Maybe if not a 'form', leucistic would be the right phrase, but if it is a 'relatively' common and usually stable pattern then down the form/morph (
) route ...exactly. bill shape and nicely demarcated yellow feet with black legs, like in the OB here. i guess it's a (rare) dark form (
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=376224&highlight=egret+vadu
I've never heard of a dark Litttle Egret in the UK (but I may not be that well-informed, and of course there isn't a large population here.) Maybe it's a more eastern/European or even a subspecies thing? Maybe a dark Little Egret in W Europe should always warrant closer scrutiny?
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
You may be right. Melanistic though are usually black (or maybe v. dark brown). Really melanistic birds are quite rare (eg I recall a Kestrel once here on BF?). Maybe if not a 'form', leucistic would be the right phrase, but if it is a 'relatively' common and usually stable pattern then down the form/morph (
I've never heard of a dark Litttle Egret in the UK (but I may not be that well-informed, and of course there isn't a large population here.) Maybe it's a more eastern/European or even a subspecies thing? Maybe a dark Little Egret in W Europe should always warrant closer scrutiny?
I hadn't realised they existed at all until fairly recently.
Gonçalo Elias
avesdeportugal.info
Lou how did you come to the conclusion that it was a Little Egret and not "something else"?
Exactly what I think
Some of the references from the Dutch Birding paper linked to below may be interesting:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321668053_Probable_hybrids_Little_Egret_x_Indian_Reef_Heron_in_India_and_Sri_Lanka
The authors of the paper claim that "records of undoubted dark-plumaged Little Egrets are extremely uncommon".
See also http://www.yoavperlman.com/2018/09/dark-morph-little-egret.html for some more thoughts on the subject.
Lützen Portengen
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321668053_Probable_hybrids_Little_Egret_x_Indian_Reef_Heron_in_India_and_Sri_Lanka
The authors of the paper claim that "records of undoubted dark-plumaged Little Egrets are extremely uncommon".
See also http://www.yoavperlman.com/2018/09/dark-morph-little-egret.html for some more thoughts on the subject.
Lützen Portengen
Simon Wates
Well-known member
Gonçalo, of course you remember the similar bird which haunted the Tavira (Portugal) area for a few years (heard nothing of it recently...?). Maybe your bird in Spain, which isn't very far from Tavira at all, could be a relative? Genealogy is well beyond me but I couldn't help but remember the reports (some 20 years ago I think) from Coto Doñana of a WRE breeding in a Little Egret colony. Just a thought.
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
My trusty old copy of The Birds of Britain and Europe by Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow, which I 'bought' with Embassy cigarette coupons in the 1970s (I gave them up I the 80s) shows Little Egrets with a Southern European range, with only a couple of pockets in France. It was classed by them then as an 'Annual' visitor to the UK.
The illustrations for the species show two phases, the white phase and what they call the black phase, with a comment next to the illustration saying that it is 'Rare'.
It distinguishes it from the following entry for the dark phase 'Reef Heron' by saying that the reef egret has a 'white chin and throat'. It says that the dark phase predominates in the reef herons in both eastern and western races.
Gonçalo Elias
avesdeportugal.info
Yes Simon I do and based on pictures I have seen I think that this could be the same bird that used to be around Tavira.
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Just as a theoretical exercise - apart from that it's in Spain and not Australia - how would one say this is not a White-faced Heron?
I too wondered about that when I first saw the pics. Guess leg colour is the main thing (all pale / yellow for white-faced), but also extent of white on face, thickness of bill and general proportions
Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
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