Egretta gularis
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The western reef heron (Egretta gularis), also called the western reef egret, is a medium-sized heron found in Africa and parts of Asia, with vagrancy occurring in Europe and the Americas. It has a mainly coastal distribution and occurs in several plumage forms: a slaty-grey plumage which can only be confused with the rather uncommon dark morph of the little egret (Egretta garzetta); a white form which can look very similar to the little egret, although the reef heron's bill tends to be paler and larger; and a black form with a white throat, E. g. gularis, found in West Africa. There are also differences in size, structure and foraging behaviour. There have been suggestions that the species hybridizes with the little egret, and based on this, some authors treat schistacea and gularis as subspecies of Egretta garzetta. Works that consider the western reef heron as a valid species include the nominate gularis and schistacea as subspecies.
This bird has two plumage colour forms. There is an all-white morph and a dark grey morph; morphs can also occur with intermediate shades of grey which may be related to age or particoloured in grey and white. The white morph is similar... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Gir National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 4 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 2 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 3 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 4 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 5 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 6 | Dammam | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 7 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 8 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 9 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 10 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Western Reef Egret sighting in Chennai on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 167th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Western Reef Egret in Chennai on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Reef Egret sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
26th of 29
Of the 29 cities where we can rate Western Reef Egret sightings, Chennai ranks 26th at under 5%. The best odds are in Manama (Bahrain, about 70%), Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 50%) and Karachi (Pakistan, about 40%).
Same genus: Egretta
The closest relatives of the Western Reef Egret that you can see in Chennai (genus Egretta, Small Egrets and Herons) are Little Egret (about 50%) and intermediate egret (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Reef Egret is recorded against all the birds logged in Chennai (39 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
