Immature white-morph Reddish Egrets Egreta rufescens with large yellow patches on the lores. These were two of three similar birds close together on the beach at the north Jetty of J.P Luby County Park, southernmost Mustang Island, Corpus Christi, Texas on October 18, 2011. On each of the three birds there was a narrow triangular yellow patch (thickest close to eye) on both sides of the face:




- What also caught my eye on the individual immediately above were the two-toned legs: mid-gray with black down the front of the tarsi. In some lights the gray leg tone might be seen as olive-gray. Put this all together and imagine the alarm-bells that might ring (falsely) in the head of a Rarity Reviewer were the above bird to be seen in, say Michigan or Utah, and described in part as "having yellow on the lores and olive-gray legs that were black down the front"...


The first time I noticed this feature was on August 28, 2005 at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, San Antonio, Texas. I had found an apparent immature white-morph Reddish Egret - but was surprised by the large yellow patch on each lore:






Here is a dark-morph immature from Mitchell Lake on August 21, 2004; it has a smaller and less contrasting yellowish loral patch:

- I wonder if the yellow loral patch is more prominent and/or frequent in white birds?