Snowy or Little Egret? (1 Viewer)

[Chato]

Shot this guy this Friday in Brooklyn New York. Is it a young Snowy with a weird beak, or is it a Little Egret being a tourist?

Any help appreciated!

Dave

 

[ospr3y]

Yellow face points to Snowy over Little.

 

[fugl]

Yellow lores = Snowy Egret this time of the year (or so I understand). The bill does look odd, however.

 

[maryvalk]

Looks like a snowy to me. If you have any other photos and have one of its feet, the entire foot should be bright yellow for a snowy.

 

[mookadabird]

The yellow is telling

Because of the yellow around the eye and base of the beak I'd agree it's a Snowy for sure. If you saw his feet at some point you would have noticed them being yellow as well. I think the light is just hitting the beak a little oddly making it look more gray than it really would normally appear.

 

[Chato]

The light was poor, but all the images show the same beak. I have no images of the feet, but they were yellow, although not as dramatic as an adult Snowy.

Although I'm under the impression that the way for a non-expert like myself, to tell them apart is by beak lenght, and color. That both species have yellow feet.

Dave

 

[jamerbean]

I can't find a report of a little egret ever being seen in Brooklyn... not that there isn't ever a first time but plain old odds favor the snowy. You also have a nice shot of a rear angle of the head, and the lack of head plume points again to snowy. Littles lack the yellow leg striping present in your last photo there, so I'd say it's almost certainly a snowy.

 

[2Rena]

That amount of yellow on the legs is very rare on Little Egret ( although I have only seen them in Japan and UK ) but is what the field guides say for Snowy Egret. The bill colour of the egrets we have here in Japan can be different with each bird so we usually see if other features are right.

 

[ScottSobel]

I may not have the experience of many of the other birders on this site. But, my book says that little egrets would always have entirely black legs. The greenish legs on this bird makes me think immature snowy egret. Just my $0.02.

 

[Chato]

Well, it seems to me that those who state (just about all of you) that this is a Snowy, and not a Little Egret have made your case...

I must say that I've never seen a Snowy with a partially gray bill. Odd. Never saw that before, and I have thousands of shots of them. But it's certainly trumped by all the other comments...

Thanks to all of you "Kill Joys" for ruining my day...

By the way, I have shot a flock of Avocets in Brooklyn, And I've shot a Great Tailed Grackle here, and I've never heard of them being seen here before.

Again, thanks for all the comments, and (sigh) proving me wrong!

Dave

 

[jamerbean]

If you're sure it's not a boat tailed grackle I'd encourage you to report it to eBird or a similar project. I see reports of great tailed grackles as far east as PA, but if a grackle can make it to PA why not a bit further? With such dramatic climate changes affecting birds it's important researchers get as much data as possible.

 

[maryvalk]

I understand Dave. I'm still a bit bummed after being told that what I considered to be a California towhee was actually a house sparrow . Still, one of my books, Kaufman's Birds of North America, states this about snowies, "Immatures may have legs mostly greenish at first, base of bill gray."