The Little Egret is distributed in central and southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, southern and south-east Asia and Australasia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

We came across the bird in photo 1 fishing in one of the rapid streams flowing down to the coast near Cape Tribulation.

The Australian sub-species E. g. immaculata has the most highly developed back plumes of any of the 3 sub-species.