Description:

A small, delicate, all-white egret with slender, blackish bill and mostly black legs with yellowish toes. In breeding plumage has two elongated nape plumes, and mantle plumes, and lores and feet become reddish during courtship. Bill in non-breeding and immature can be paler and pinkish or greyish at base, legs can be yellowish or greenish.

Distribution:

Uncommon summer visitor along Indus River up to lower areas of Diamer and Gilgit districts. Occurs around freshwater or brackish marshes, lakes, pools and rivers with surrounding cultivation, reed-beds or vegetation. Found up to 1500m.

Behavior:

Diurnal, active feeder, using wide variety of techniques, especially foot stirring and walking slowly; and in deeper water, hovering, dipping, foot dragging, jumping and hopping. Highly opportunistic feeder and swift to take advantage of local prey abundances. Aquatic and terrestrial insects, crustaceans and small fish.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Little Egret in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Little Egret

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.