Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) breeding color

[Peter Scholer]

Little Egret (breeding color) Pinkish lore with purple coloration towards beak.
Two ribbon-like head plumes present.
I was wondering if anyone has seen this before?
Near Macleay, NSW Australia.
Nikon D500

600mm f4 VR with 1.4x tele
Tripod
Shutter 2000, f8, Auto ISO 450, exp -0.7
1.22pm -light cloud 12/12/2018

Photoshop crop, exp, whites, noise reduction and sharpen.

Lots of egrets in this area but only two little egrets (pair) that could be seen.
The other mate had pinkish lore but no purple.
Thanks for looking
Peter

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Peter, I like the breeding colours on the lores, and the Egret pops against the darker BG. I'm not sure about your crop. The way I see this is, either you crop to achieve a portrait of the head a bit of the wing, or your crop to show the whole subject. Here you have a 'three quarter' subject which doesnt work for me.

[Peter Scholer]

Thank you Stu I will try this!
Here I wanted to show the head ribbons as well if its not to much to include.

[Arthur Morris]

Before reading Stu's comment or seeing your repost I came up with this one. It surely needed to crop from below to eliminate the ugliest parts of the mangroves. Love those lores; they are reminiscent of white morph Reddish Egret (though much more closely related to our Snow Egret). In addition to the crop, I worked to even out the exposure as with the light from the left, parts for the face were shaded. I also opened up the shaded triangle on the neck as well as the iris and the lores. Last was some selective sharpening on the lores and the eye.

We would love to see some images of your "other egrets." In what month was this created?

thanks, and thanks for your membership support.

a

[John Mack]

The pose on the bird is nice and i like the breeding color on the lore. Bird really pops against that dark background.

[Peter Scholer]

Thank you Art, much appreciate your edit and helpful comments. The improved image looks much better with the cropping, lighting and selective sharpening.
I looked at the morph Reddish Egret you mentioned and the lore colors are similar, the colors are reversed with the purple being closer to the eye. Nature is wonderful!
I will definitely post some of the other egrets from here. Northern NSW Australia.
The image was created this month, December on the 12th 2018.
Peter

[Arthur Morris]

YAW Peter. Do you ever get to the northwestern coast of Australia to photograph the shorebirds in spring plumage??? (I just learned that the Gold Coast is on the opposite side of the country ...)

a

[Peter Scholer]

YAW Peter. Do you ever get to the northwestern coast of Australia to photograph the shorebirds in spring plumage??? (I just learned that the Gold Coast is on the opposite side of the country ...)

a
Hi Art,
Not so lucky, but love to get there.
It is approx 5,000kms or 3106 miles away. The Kimberley Coast would be awesome.
Peter

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Peter. Perhaps a bucket list trip for me ... Two weeks Down Under and maybe NZ as well ... See you then.

with love, arite