Pond Heron, Cambodia (1 Viewer)

[Alexjh1]

Another Pond Heron sp. from Prek Toal February, and I appreciate the answer may well again be "you can't really tell".

Looking through at this one though, it seems to have extensive pale buff sections on the face which would be streaked or going red in a non-breeding Chinese PH and would fit with a partially moulted Javan PH, which it would be within range for?

Any thoughts? Thanks again for any help!

 

[johnallcock]

Sorry, I think that "you can't really tell".
I don't think that the feathering on the face is necessarily breeding plumage. The streaking can be quite poorly defined in this part of the face in winter, and on an image of this quality a Chinese Pond Heron would probably look similar to this.

 

[Alexjh1]

Thanks! It was a bit of a longshot.

Just a tad vexing to have potentially seen a lifer (given range and vast quantities of pond herons seen) and having zero ability to actually confirm haha.