Dr. Veit and I spent some time looking at plates and relevant literature at the College of Staten Island- we were able to rule out Little Blue Heron and Western Reef Heron, and are now leaning toward the ID being HY Little Egret -
Here is the email Dick sent to SINaturalist: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Richard Veit rrvei...@gmail.com [SINaturaList] < sinatural...@yahoogroups.com> Date: Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 2:09 PM Subject: [SINaturaList] Egret at Goethal's Bridge Pond To: <sinatural...@yahoogroups.com> We (Ramirez, Wollney, Eib, Grant, Sime, Paul, Ciancimino) have now spent a good deal of time examining the egret at GBP, and Anthony Cianciamino and Seth Wollney have obtained some useful photos. My opinion is that he bird is a Little Egret. It is possible we cannot eliminate with certainty the chance of it being snowy egret, but it seems the probability strongly favors little. We have seriously considered, and rejected, the possibility of little blue heron and western reef heron, as follows: LB Heron: despite bicolored looking bill (it looks black in some light), other features mitigate against lbh. The bird has longer bill and legs than all nearby snowies, pure white primaries (no dark tips; lbh has shorter bill and legs than snowy), contrastingly yellow feet, especially the "soles", and the overall shape (flat crown, long neck and bill) looks right for little egret. Howell et al. "Rare Birds of North America" illustrate "juvenile" little Egret with bicolored bill, and there is a photo of such a bird banded in England on the "CHOG" website (google"juvenile little egret"). Western Reef heron: in addition to the white morph of western reef heron being scarce or never recorded in western hemisphere, these have shorter legs and differently colored bill than our bird. Snowy Egret: this bird has darker legs, longer bill and legs and flatter crown than all ~ 20 snowies with whom it is associated. While it is not impossible for a snowy to look this way, the fact that this bird stands out so clearly lessens the possibility that it is a snowy. The Goethal's bird looks older somehow than a two-week old snowy - and Buckley et al. "The Birds of Barbados" state that Little Egrets (15-25 pairs) nest throughout the year at Barbados with a peak of egg laying in dec-feb, so a vagrant from that colony to new York could appropriately be older than a week or two (more like 3 months-ish) consistent with this birds plumage and behavior. It will be worth monitoring this bird in the event it stays longer and molts into more advanced plumage (or soft part colors) -- Richard R. Veit Professor, Biology CSI/CUNY 2800 Victory Boulevard Staten Island, NY 10314 718-982-4144 fax 718-982-3852 __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: Richard Veit <rrvei...@gmail.com> ------------------------------ Reply via web post <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SINaturaList/conversations/messages/5618;_ylc=X3oDMTJxcG40czk3BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwNzI5OTQyBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NTc4NwRtc2dJZAM1NjE4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3JwbHkEc3RpbWUDMTQ5OTYyMzc5NA--?act=reply&messageNum=5618> • Reply to sender <rrvei...@gmail.com?subject=Re%3A%20Egret%20at%20Goethal%27s%20Bridge%20Pond> • Reply to group <sinatural...@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20Egret%20at%20Goethal%27s%20Bridge%20Pond> • Start a New Topic <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SINaturaList/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNW8zYnFyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwNzI5OTQyBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NTc4NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNudHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0OTk2MjM3OTQ-> • Messages in this topic <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SINaturaList/conversations/topics/5618;_ylc=X3oDMTM1cWZ0aW9sBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwNzI5OTQyBGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NTc4NwRtc2dJZAM1NjE4BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTQ5OTYyMzc5NAR0cGNJZAM1NjE4> (1) ------------------------------ Have you tried the highest rated email app? <https://yho.com/1wwmgg> With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. 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