Pacific Reef Heron in Singapore

The Pacific Reef Heron (Egretta sacra) also known as the Pacific Reef Egret is a bird of the heron family that is resident from South-east Asia region to Australia and New Zealand.

It is a peculiar heron species that exhibit non-sexual dimorphism, that is that some birds are entirely white-plumaged (white-morph) and some entirely charcoal grey (dark morph). The grey plumaged birds formed the majority of the population worldwide (but apparently the opposite in Singapore in the past) but they breed freely. There have also been cases of intermediate coloured morph but that is rarer.

These herons are predominantly coastal birds, and can be found near the shore, where they time their feeding according to the tide level. They hunt for fish, crustaceans and molluscs om the shallower part of the water.

In Singapore, they can be found near the seaside, with the largest population at the shores of the various southern islands. However they can be found in other places. These past few years, they have been reported near West Coast Park, Pasir Ris Park, Seletar Dam, Pulau Ubin and even a canal along Telok Kurau.

 

Photo Gallery

A dark-morph Pacific Reef Heron on lift-off at Seletar Dam, with trailing water droplets.

As the bird was below on the reservoir, we could see its upperparts easily

A Pacific Reef Heron at a canal in Telok Kurau. The bird was hunting in the canal for a few months, and will appear if the water level is right.

Lifting up a piece of dead leaves that look like a fish, and discarding it soon after. It is a hardworking bird and will repeatedly hunt like this until it gets a meal.

A white-morph at Pulau Hantu. The white-morph can be easily mistaken for the similar looking Chinese Egret, but it has much shorter legs and the bill is differently shaped.

A heron on a boat awaiting the corrct tide level at West Coast Park.

The different morphs of the heron is believed to be for camouflage purposes. Here is one dark-morph camouflaged by the dark man-made structure along Singapore Strait. It took a few observers quite some time to locate it, even though everybody knew the general direction it flew to.