Abstract

In July 2020, a grey juvenile egret was found in north Lincolnshire and later in Nottinghamshire; it was either a grey-morph Little Egret Egretta garzetta or hybrid Little x Western Reef Egret E. garzetta x gularis. What was apparently the same bird was found in Lincolnshire the following year. The existence of grey morph Little Egrets continues to be debated; however, if the bird were a Little x Western Reef Egret, it would represent a new taxon (of sorts) in Britain. The record was submitted to BBRC as a Little x Western Reef Egret but was, by a narrow margin, found to be Not Proven owing to the apparent risk of the bird being a grey-morph Little Egret. This paper presents images of the bird and discusses the tricky issues that remain around attempting to identify such birds.