Intermediate Egret? Oman (1 Viewer)

[njlarsen]

Niels,
if you thought that this looked liked a Cattle Egret, I'd say that what needs to be eliminated are all your optics.................

Maybe I am exaggerating, but it did not look close to any Great Egret that I have ever seen .. including on my two trips to Australia.

Niels

 

[sicklebill]

I would go for Intermediate Jan, bill and gape line look good, also size. I see Eastern Great Egrets frequently and don't think this is one.

 

[Dimitris]

modesta is a subspecies of Great Egret and really can be "that small" and is a real problem. It is a scarce migrant/vagrant but is probably as common as Intermediate in the UAE and northern Oman. In Salalah and the South of Oman it is less common than Intermediate but still a confusion.

I would suggest looking at the photos at https://www.uaebirding.com/bird-photos.

It is up to you if you count it unless you want to submit it to the Omani rarities committee via the bird recorder which I think is still at [email protected]

There's one Great Egret in the intermediate picture set. Though the remainder of the birds on there look good for intermediate.

 

[johnallcock]

There's one Great Egret in the intermediate picture set. Though the remainder of the birds on there look good for intermediate.

Agreed, three photos of presumably the same bird at Ra's al-Khor WR on 5/12/2017. Probably a modesta, judging by the fully black legs.

 

[THE_FERN]

Agreed, three photos of presumably the same bird at Ra's al-Khor WR on 5/12/2017. Probably a modesta, judging by the fully black legs.

Yes: these pics demonstrate the gape line thing as a good way to separate the two, at least for me

 

[Tib78]

The OP bird is indeed an Intermediate. Apart from the gape line, note the shape of the bare skin patch on the lores: it is rather wide/square as opposed to the narrower, more rectangular skin patch of Great egret.
Another thing that is usually rather obvious once you have your eyes tuned into it is the size of the eye: it is noticeably bigger in intermediate in comparison to the head.

As a side note, I am not sure I agree with the fact that there is a Great egret in the UAE birding gallery...