Pacific Reef-egret Egretta sacra Pacific Reef Heron, Eastern Reef-egret

Pacific Reef-egret Egretta sacra
(aka Pacific Reef Heron, Eastern Reef-egret)

Australia

The Pacific Reef-egret is distributed around the coasts of south-east Asia north to Japan and including Indonesia, Philippines, Oceania and Australasia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International.

It is found on the coast and on islands and is rarely very far from the sea. It feeds on crabs and fish but also tern chicks and can force adult terns to regurgitate their prey so Michaelmas Key with its large tern population holds obvious attractions.

There is a white morph shown here in photos 1 to 4 from Michaelmas Key and a dark grey morph - photo 5 from Darwin shown standing behind a Silver Gull.

Pacific Reef Egret, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, October 2013 - click for larger image

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