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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CAU" data-source="post: 1242320" data-attributes="member: 55324">Even if we ignore the nostril, the bill is still wrongly shaped for a Cattle Egret. For example, the edge of the lower mandible bends upwards close to the tip, whereas it should be quite straight on Cattle Egrets. The lower mandible is also very big compared to the upper one.I think that by far the most probable alternative is, that the bird is a leucistic/albino Grey Heron chick, that has died and dropped out of a nest. According to the caption there were several other dead Grey Heron chicks on the ground, too, although in a less developed stage (they had probably died earlier). As I have said earlier, the bill length to the tip of the feathering was 92 mm and the wing length 307 mm. <a href="http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/vcollects/detail.asp?Grp=Birds&Genus=Bubulcus&Species=ibis" target="_blank">This </a>page states that the average wing length for a few Cattle Egret samples was 221 mm, and that the average bill length was 55.5 mm.<a href="http://www.journalarchive.jst.go.jp/jnlpdf.php?cdjournal=jjo1986&cdvol=45&noissue=3&startpage=183&lang=en&from=jnlabstract" target="_blank">This </a>source claims that the bill length variation for 34 juvenile Grey Herons was 92-123 mm, which means that the bill of the subject bird already fits a normal Grey Heron.</blockquote>