I wrote to David Sibley about the Great Egret I saw at the Scioto Audubon MP in Columbus. Here is his response. --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Sibley <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:33:04 -0400 Subject: Re: Great Egret question Richard, Thanks for your note. I learned about this variation after my guide was published. It's one of those things that I just started seeing routinely as soon as it was too late to add it to the book. It seems to be a normal variation of _breeding_ Great Egrets, so it can be seen from January to June or so, on a small percentage of adult birds. Best, David Sibley [log in to unmask] wrote: > Hello, > I recently came across what turned out to be a Great Egret with a bill > other than the bright yellow-orange. Since it was standing in water and > in a resting position, it seemed to me to be a Snowy Egret. In your Guide > (4th printing) all stages of the Great Egret have the yellow bills with > very little other coloring. After searching the web, I did find other > birds which had the darker bills (and the long stringy plumes, which the > one I observed also had hanging from it.). > > Here are some of the photos I was able to find. The bird I observed had a > bill similar to one in the last photo, but with a little less orange. > > http://tinyurl.com/2rmmqs > http://tinyurl.com/38fmno > http://tinyurl.com/37mumb > > Would these be just variants? Or maybe non-breeding adults? > > > Richard Cressman > Columbus OH > [log in to unmask] > > ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]