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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joern Lehmhus" data-source="post: 1242799" data-attributes="member: 3229">Thanks to all for this discussion which went on over the weekend... some points I was thinking about: i have been looking at egret and heron beaks at the weekend and have to agree with those that say lower mandible shape looks odd for Cattle egret. I had excluded a young Grey Heron due to the wing seeming to be fully developed (no feather sheaths, as also mentioned by KnockerNorton). Can this really be not visible in a not fully grown young bird???The Tibia looks still very short to me -odd for an adult , but not for a growing bird? The leg joints look fairly thick on the last photo which might indicate a bird still growing, but that is again difficult to judge and could be affected by the decomposing body of this bird.I would exclude any hybrid between a white and a non-white heron species here, asall such hybrids which I have seen on photos or where I have read descriptions show some darker feathering, often a pale ghost pattern of the coloured heron species pattern.  Here is a link to a bird which I would consider a hybrid Great blue heron x Great white egret, to show what I mean:<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/id22.html" target="_blank">http://home.earthlink.net/~pomarine/id22.html</a>However, I can not safely exclude a hybrid between two white species.So my initial reaction "Cattle egret" could well have been wrong, but I am still not sure what it is.</blockquote>

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