Squacco or Indian Pond? Oman (2 Viewers)

[opisska]

We have accumulated a sizeable collection of non-breeding "Squacco" herons in Oman and I am still utterly confused. It seems the only reasonable mark is the loral line, but I see its presence as more of a spectrum than on/off. Nevertheless, I tried to separate the herons into categories, did I do well?

Category 1: likely Pond (birds 1-5)

 

[opisska]

Category 2: likely Squacco (birds 6-10)

 

[opisska]

Category 2 continued (birds 11-14)

 

[opisska]

Category 3: what is happening? (birds 15-16)

 

[Muppit17]

I dont really have an answer for you, but I can share my experience from the UAE when I lived there, and IPH is a winter visitor to the Arabian Sea coast at Khor Kalba

- When found in mangroves it was nearly always a IPH
- When found inland and on fresh water it was nearly always a SH

The loral area is divided into two sections - the line from above the eye to the bill and then the bare skin between the eye and the bill. In IPH the line is yellow, normally bright, whilst the bare skin is dull.

If both are equally yellow then it is normally a SH. (your photo 14)

The bill patterning is also a guide, but their are exceptions. The upper mandible is generally all dark in IPh, to the base, whilst it is generally paler in SH at the base. The lower mandible of the IPH normally goes dark at base, yellowish in the middle and then dark at the tip in clearly demarcated bands, this is not so clear in a SH.

Generally winter IPH are more clearly streaked on the breast, almost giving a striped appearance. In is less clear in SH.

This is less distinct with Juvenile birds and also when birds moult to breeding - IPH is generally plainer in breeding and more heavily marked in winter.

This is all subtle.

I think that photo 1-3 are good candidates - not so convinced on 4 & 5.

Photo 12 shows a bird that apart from the loral area looks a good candidate and just illustrates how difficult this is

 

[opisska]

Oh thanks, this is so difficult then! I think all the pictures are taken within a kilometer from the sea - with the exception of, you guess, bird 12! Just to make it more puzzling. Only bird 3 is in proper mangroves, 1 and 2 are from Al Qurm park, close to a mangrove area, but not quite in it.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Oh thanks, this is so difficult then! I think all the pictures are taken within a kilometer from the sea - with the exception of, you guess, bird 12! Just to make it more puzzling. Only bird 3 is in proper mangroves, 1 and 2 are from Al Qurm park, close to a mangrove area, but not quite in it.

'We don't do these things because they are easy but because they are hard'....JFK

 

[opisska]

'We don't do these things because they are easy but because they are hard'....JFK

I would actually much prefer IDs to be easy, I find it more of a nuisance than anything. Especially because I am bad both with visual clues and sounds and I notoriously suffer form inability to take decisions, so I never know when to actually accept my own IDs. That's why I have started literal hundreds of threads here - I just need someone to tell me confidently enough what the bird is, regardless of their actual authority is