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Egretta novaehollandiae

Summary 10

The White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) also known as the White-fronted Heron, and incorrectly as the Grey Heron, or Blue Crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Indonesia, New Zealand, the islands of the Subantarctic, and all but the driest areas of Australia.

General description 11

Mostly light blue-grey in colour, with a characteristic white face. In flight, the dark flight feathers of the wing contrast with the paler grey plumage, making this bird easily identifiable when viewed from below. It has a long, slim neck and a pointed grey-black bill. The legs are long and dull yellow in colour. Sexes are similar. When breeding, the birds have long feathers (nuptial plumes) on the head, neck and back. The White-faced Heron has a slow bouncing flight. Young White-faced Herons are similar in appearance to the non-breeding adults (no nuptial plumes), but are duller, with little or no white on the face. They often have a reddish colour on the underparts.

Distribution 12

Subspecies and Distribution:

    *novaehollandiae (Latham, 1790) - New Zealand, Australia, S New Guinea, New Caledonia and S Indonesia; probably in process of colonizing Christmas I (Indian Ocean). *parryi (Mathews, 1912) - NW Australia.


Size 13

60-70 cm

Habitat and ecology 14

Systems

  • Terrestrial
  • Freshwater
  • Marine

Behaviour 15

Reproduction 16

Oct-Dec but may breed outside the breeding season in response to rainfall. Both sexes share the building of the nest, incubation of the eggs and care of the young. The nest is an untidy structure of sticks, placed in a tree. Normally only one brood of young is raised in a year.

Iucn red list assessment 17


Red List Category
LC
Least Concern

Red List Criteria

Version
3.1

Year Assessed
2012

Assessor/s
BirdLife International

Reviewer/s
Butchart, S. & Symes, A.

Contributor/s

Justification
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend is not known, but the population is not believed to be decreasing sufficiently rapidly to approach the thresholds under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be moderately small to large, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) ekabeydeera, all rights reserved
  2. (c) David Cook, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/kookr/14371635735/
  3. (c) David Jenkins, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/birdsaspoetry/9090896589/
  4. (c) David Jenkins, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/birdsaspoetry/14929803779/
  5. (c) msr, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by msr
  6. (c) Malcolm Tattersall, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6129/5982886548_636e7f2cfd_o.jpg
  7. (c) Leo, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/3073422435_3f54b09999.jpg
  8. (c) Jörg Hempel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Egretta_novaehollandiae_LC0249.jpg
  9. (c) Tony Dudley, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5025/5597574800_b7547b4187.jpg
  10. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egretta_novaehollandiae
  11. (c) New Guinea Birds, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/26406914
  12. (c) New Guinea Birds, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/26406913
  13. (c) New Guinea Birds, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/26406917
  14. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31037249
  15. (c) New Guinea Birds, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/26406910
  16. (c) New Guinea Birds, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/26406916
  17. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31037247

More Info

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(c) Discover Life and original sources, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC-SA)

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