A non-breeding adult showing a pale mandible. Breeding birds have plumes and a darker bill. Some authors place this species in the genus "Ardea." Two to six subspecies are recognized by various authors depending on whether they split it into Little, Western Reef, and Dimorphic egrets or lump all three into one highly variable Little Egret. Clements/eBird take a middle road, splitting Western Reef, but lumping Dimorphic while IOC splits all three. Indonesian birds should be the race "E. g. nigripes" which has yellow lores, but mostly black feet with yellow only on the underside of the toes. However this bird seems to be a variant with all greenish-yellow toes or more likely it might be a migrant of the nominate race from East Asia. Little Egret forms a superspecies with the similar "E. thula" (Snowy Egret) of the Americas.
