Western Reef Heron

The western reef heron, or western reef egret, is a medium-sized, mainly coastal heron with two colour forms: an all-white morph and a dark slaty-grey morph with a whitish throat, plus intermediate and pied birds. The white morph looks like a little egret but has a larger, yellower bill and thicker legs with more yellow. In the breeding season the legs and facial skin turn reddish, and breeding birds carry two long plumes on the nape. A black West African form also exists (Wikipedia, general species account).

It stalks prey in shallow water and is a very active forager, often running, and sometimes moves or holds out a wing to shade the water. Because it may hybridise with the little egret, some authors treat it as a subspecies of that bird. It occurs in Africa and parts of Asia, with vagrants reaching Europe and the Americas. SoIB 2023 lists it as resident in India with local movements, estimates a long-term decline of about 68% and a current fall of about 5% a year, and rates it a High conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).