Is this Pied Heron or Reef heron? Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, Adventure park- May 2023 (1 Viewer)

[nidhinc]

Hi Birders,

I saw this heron in a group of pied heron & initially I thought it was reef heron (about 7-10km away from sea) but when I looked the photos then I got confused. Is there a dark morph of pied heron & could it be this?

Thanks

Nid

 

[HouseCrow]

A Pied I would say, very unlike egrets, but i have only come across tens of Reef while studying jp bird records: no live experience with either species.
Cheers
H

 

[Joe H]

Another great photo of a difficult bird, Nid. I agree with Pied though the lack of a contrasting white neck is uncharacteristic. I would say that I've never seen a Reef Egret inland - always along the coast. Also, it appears the photographed bird has a long black nuchal crest, common on Pied, and possible on Reef, but I've never seen it. Lastly, the legs on the photographed bird do not look proportionally short as they would on a Reef, which I would exclude. If it's a Pied, the possibility exists that there might be some cross-breeding in its family line to account for the uniform grey appearance. I've never heard of a dark morph Pied.

 

[nidhinc]

Thank you Housecrow & Joe. Attached another photo for comparison.

 

[Butty]

there might be some cross-breeding in its family line

In the absence of any other indication that characteristics of another species are present, it seems sensible to put this down to aberration - not hybridisation.

 

[Joe H]

The second picture posted is a stunner Nid. Butty is right that it's sensible to consider the bird an aberrant Pied. But the non-sensible side of me wonders if night herons (especially Eurasian Black-crowned) can cross-breed with Pieds...

 

[Butty]

the non-sensible side of me

👍🏻

 

[Andy Adcock]

The second picture posted is a stunner Nid. Butty is right that it's sensible to consider the bird an aberrant Pied. But the non-sensible side of me wonders if night herons (especially Eurasian Black-crowned) can cross-breed with Pieds...

Why isn't it simply a melanistic bird?

 

[Joe H]

It probably is; that’s the aberration Butty mentioned above. But PNG is such a fascinating place with so many unusual birds, and guidebooks for it aren’t in every bookshelf, so this forum is a great place to explore the possibilities while we assist a guy lucky enough to be there.

 

[HouseCrow]

Or mud stains? It does not look too different from other dark birds here Observations (inaturalist records of Pied)

 

[stevethehydra]

I was going to say could it be stained/oiled?

Incidentally, the immature in the background of your second pic looks weirdly like it's trying to mimic a Lesser Black-backed Gull!