What color are Little Egret feet, really? (1 Viewer)

[jurek]

Just a spin-off from another thread, something which was on back of my mind for a long time.

I many times saw Little Egrets with dark grey or blackish feet. I came to the conclusion that this is quite normal in first-year birds, and a sort of laziness of field guides not to mention it. Little Egret is easy to identify anyway, so few people with another look.

I also saw Little Egrets with feet color which could be described as dull pale green and grey-flesh. Here I suppose temperature and health of the bird plays a role.

(One may claim it is all staining by mud. However it is often in places which are more watery than muddy, and I never seen e.g. a Moorhen with significantly stained feet there. And if the bird is frequently stained, then it is useless field character anyway, right?).

(It is now breeding season and all the Little Egrets look especially fine and well colored. But in late summer, autumn and winter it is quite different).

 

[PYRTLE]

Bare part colouration ( beaks, legs and feet principally ) should remain a field characteristic for me. Example.... a blonde haired human being - cover their hair with a dark hat and it hides the natural colour but the person remains a blonde. Same with Little Egret with mud on the feet.

 

[johnallcock]

I see a lot of Little Egrets in Hong Kong (quite a common breeding bird here, and I used to work on a wetland reserve) and I've never seen one with black feet. And yes, I do often look even though Little Egrets are easy to identify on other features.

The foot colour is a bit variable, from bright yellow to orange-yellow to grey-green, or sometimes pink or purple for a short period in the breeding season, but always contrasting with the black legs (at least here, I realise that there are other subspecies with black feet in Australia). The colour is brighter during the breeding season and duller in winter and young birds. Mud can sometimes partly cover the yellow, but even then there is usually some yellow visible.

As I mentioned in the other thread, chicks in the nest have greenish feet which often extends to cover much of the leg as well. Gradually the leg turns black after fledging.

So, in my experience I have seen nothing to support the accusation that field guides are lazy for not describing black feet. It doesn't seem to be a normal feature, as you suggest.

Jurek, you mention that you have seen this many times. Do you have any photos? Given that it seems to be a rare occurrence in Europe, it may be worth documenting with photos.

 

[jurek]

I am afraid I did not consider taking photos, but here is one example:
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&mid=545994
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&mid=555082
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&backlink=skip&mid=545091
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&mid=544201
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&mid=539056
https://www.ornitho.ch/index.php?m_id=54&mid=545450

It is a locally well watched individual which wintered on a lake in Switzerland, as, as you can see, on no photo its feet are yellow (on one footpads are a little yellow). Over the course of the winter, it moulted from first-winter to a nice summer plumage, and its bill changed from dull pale grey to black.

(Note also that nobody of tens of people reporting it commented over its unusual feet color).

 

[johnallcock]

Thanks. It's certainly unusual, and I've never seen a bird at all like this, with such restricted yellow on the feet. It's definitely not a normal foot colour for Little Egret.

Looking closely at the photos, on some it actually seems like it is more than the colour that is unusual, some toes seem to be a slightly odd shape with claws missing. I'm not entirely sure about that from these photos though, maybe I am imagining differences because of the unusual colour.

 

[njlarsen]

Especially juvenile birds can have extensive greenish or yellowish on the legs (info from the Caribbean http://ttbsdc.ttfnc.org/SECB/records/idlittlesnowyegret.html). I wonder if the color on the leg changes sooner than the color on the feet.

Niels

 

[Earnest lad]

Well in Sri Lanka I saw Little Egrets with flesh-coloured toes. In fact at one point I was struggling to find one with the usual bright yellow toes. And that was in the months of February / March.
I wonder if these ones are a different race of Little Egret, because elsewhere one sees the Little egret with prominently yellow toes

 

[johnallcock]

Well in Sri Lanka I saw Little Egrets with flesh-coloured toes. In fact at one point I was struggling to find one with the usual bright yellow toes. And that was in the months of February / March.
I wonder if these ones are a different race of Little Egret, because elsewhere one sees the Little egret with prominently yellow toes

These would be birds in breeding condition, when the feet commonly turn reddish for a short period. These colour changes of the legs and feet are common in breeding herons.

 

[jurek]

Hi John,
I looked at this particular Little Egret and all its toes and claws are in place.

I scanned through pictures of Little Egrets and it looks like yellow foot color is very variable in extent. A minority (also adult) birds have yellow reaching into at least mid-tarsus, (which is sometimes said to be a distinguishing feature of other egret species). Others have yelow feet (toes and footpad), others still only toes or not all length of toes. It looks like dark-footed birds are extreme end of the variation.

Color of "pale" feet on photos is very variable, sometimes grey or lime-green. However, casual photos are not very helpful here, because real color of feet is often difficult to distinguish from color rendering of a camera.