Western Reef Heron - Mallorca - October 2016 (1 Viewer)

[Alexski]

Saw this egret on the 27th October at the S'Albufereta reserve in Mallorca and would welcome any thoughts on whether the bird is a 100% Western Reef Heron or a hybrid Western Reef x Little Egret.

Initially, having a quick look at some pictures online, I assumed it was a hybrid. Now having got back home from Mallorca and having had the chance to read up about WRH in various books and articles, my feeling has changed to it being a pure WRH. Here I will list my reasons for thinking this and would welcome any thoughts.

• Location: The bird was found at the mouth of a stream entering into the sea, which seems to be a preferred habitat for WRH.
• Behavior: It was in the company of many Little Egrets, but kept itself isolated from them. What immediately struck me was how nervous the bird was, much more so than the nearby egrets. As soon as it caught sight of me it flew some distance away whilst the Little Egrets remained undisturbed despite them being closer.
• Shape: The bird looked slightly smaller in height but stockier than the egrets and stood more upright more like a tiny Grey Heron.
• Bill: What I noticed is that the bill didn't seem as slender and dagger-like as what I'm used to with Little Egrets, but was longer and thicker with the end of the culmen curving down.
• Chin: Looking more carefully at my photos, I noticed that the chin seemed bulkier and not as thin as that of a Little Egret.
• Head: Again looking at the photos, the overall impression of the head is that it is not as smoothly rounded as a Little Egret and seemed 'flatter' at the back of the head.
• Lores: The yellowish-grey colour seems more typical of WRH.

Again, I would welcome any thoughts/confirmation.

 

[stevethehydra]

I know there has been controversy before over whether an "intermediate" morph of WRH exists or whether birds with plumage like this are hybrids between dark morph WRH and always-white species such as Little Egret - so while a proper expert might come along and call it one way or the other, it might be that this bird actually is a "type" that there is no consensus on whether they are "pure" or "hybrid"...

 

[Simon Wates]

I'm not sure if a hybrid can be told from an atypical pure individual.

Occasionally in Iberia we get a pure individual - like this one in the spring of 2,000, which I was privileged to see with the photographer: http://www.avesdeportugal.info/egrgul.html The concensus at the time is that it was the west African race.

 

[stevethehydra]

Here's an apparent hybrid from Portugal: http://birdhybrids.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/little-egret-x-western-reef-heron.html

 

[Simon Wates]

Here's an apparent hybrid from Portugal: http://birdhybrids.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/little-egret-x-western-reef-heron.html

I've seen this bird a number of times - and so have many folk as its been around on and off for years - there's a few knocking about Spain and Portugal.

Do birds like this occur n WRH's nornal range?

I personally don't consider any of these anything but hybrids. There was an apparently pure bird in Spain earlier this year IIRC.