Glancing idly through the heron and egret pictures here earlier today I was surprised to note that there wasn’t an Eastern Reef Egret. Thinking about that I’m not sure that I’ve seen one for a good many years. I imagine that they are still common enough on the central and northern coastlines and I just haven’t been in the right places.
So here is a pair from more than 20 years ago, photographed in Darwin back in digiscoping days (hence the poor image quality by current standards).
I remember this pair clearly. Firstly they happened to be a mixed pair - a white morph female with a dark morph male. That is quite unusual. Secondly, I was able to watch trhe nest-building process for quite some time. It is quite a procedure!
The male gathers all the nesting material, the female stays put and does the construction. The procedure is highly ritualised. He brings a stick from somewhere and presents it to her with a bow. She bows in return. He bows again, she bows again. They do this several times before she accepts the stick and places it on the nest, or (for no reason I could fathom) rejects it and tosses it aside.
They they sit for a while before he goes off and finds another stick and the whole process is repeated. Every stick of the fairly large, messy nest is the result of elaborate courtesy. It must take days and days to complete the job.