Little Egret x Western Reef-Heron

Little Egret x Western Reef-Heron hybrid, Santa Luzia (Algarve, Portugal), October 2006 - copyright Henrique Oliveira Pires

(photo ID: 2129)

In recent years a small number of Western Reef-Herons have been identified amongst colonies of Little Egrets in southern Europe. These have bred with the Little Egrets and some hybrids have been observed. Henrique Oliveira Pires has been fortunate to capture one such hybrid in southern Portugal on a couple of occasions.

It differs from pure Western Reef-Heron in a number of ways, including the all-dark legs and finer bill, but the identification of these two species is not always easy even without hybrids.  Henrique had photographed a similar bird at the same place five years previously - shown below.  Perhaps this was the same bird as a similar individual was photographed in the area by Ray Tipper in the years in between.  His photos taken in January 2001 and November 2002 were published in Birding World 14.2: 55 and Birding World 15.11: 462. 

Little Egret x Western Reef-Heron hybrid, Santa Luzia (Algarve, Portugal), October 2001 - copyright Henrique Oliveira Pires

(photo ID: 2130)

Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Western Reef-Heron Egretta gularis

Little Egret x Snowy Egret

apparent Little Egret x Snowy Egret hybrid, Aruba (Lesser Antilles), April 2013 - copyright Steve Mlodinow

(photo ID: 1189)

Steve writes:

"I really thought this was a Little Egret when I first saw it, partly because of the two plumes whipping around in the breeze.  The legs were yellow, but more olive-yellow than the bright yellow of the nearby Snowy Egrets, and then no yellow or green ran up the back of the legs, as it did with most (or all?) of the Snowies present.  Additionally, this bird did not show the filoplumes on the back that the Snowies did.  In direct comparison, the bill looked thicker.  However, the lores are rather bright (not impossibly so) for Little Egret, perhaps the head plumes a tad short... and there are some (reduced but present) of the bushy filoplumes on the neck/nape that Snowy Egrets show.  So, I suspect that this bird is a hybrid."

Comments are welcome (as always)!

apparent Little Egret x Snowy Egret hybrid (same bird as in photo ID 1189 above), Aruba (Lesser Antilles), April 2013 - copyright Steve Mlodinow

(photo IDs: 1185-1188)

Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Snowy Egret Egretta thula