Chinese Egret at Punta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

I have to confess to feeling dismayed when I arrived at the mudflats at Punta Taytay this morning just before low water at 08:15h. There were swarms of folk scouring the mudflats for oysters and I feared their presence would have scared away most of the waders. So I was not exactly optmisitic as I headed out.

There were a lot of Terns as always,  a few Grey-tailed Tattlers and Greater Sand Plovers, birds which I would expect to see here along with Collared Kingfisher but no sign of Whimbrels, Curlews or Turnstones which I have seen here before. There were also a number of Little Herons flying around too.

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occide

ntales, Philippines

10.04.11

I managed to get a couple of decent shots of a few birds and was reasonably content with that. I was heading off the mudflats in a homeward direction and I thought I would photograph a Little Egret that was nearby. Once I had this bird in my sights I realised the dagger like bill was wrong as was the colouring at the base of the bill. I thought it was too small to be either Intermediate or Great and then I saw it move, neck skewed to one side, see picture above, and I felt pretty sure it was a Chinese Egret.

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

I think this species is slightly more common in the Philippines than they are in Thailand where they are a real trophy bird. However they are listed as "Vunerable"  by the IUCN. I don't have a field guide with me so I can't really say much more about its range and distribution in the Philippines. But this is a great bird for the area and I am very pleased with it. I have a short video clip of it which I shall attempt to load when I have a stronger internet connection.

Pacific Golden Plover coming into breeding plumage

Pluvialis fluva

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

Collared Kingfisher

Todiramphus chloris

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

So a good day became a really good day and I went home a very happy camper.