The Story
I photographed this Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) near the Mai Po Marshes in Hong Kong’s northwest New Territories on March 22, 2018. It is a small white heron with a slender black bill and long black legs. It feeds in shallow water and on land, taking a variety of small creatures. It breeds in colonies, often with other waterbirds, building a platform nest of sticks in a tree, bush or reed bed. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. WWF Hong Kong has managed the Mai Po reserve since 1983. The reserve supports globally important numbers of wetland birds, which arrive in winter and during spring and autumn migration.
I took this with a Pentax K-1 and the HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW, at 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100, −1 EV. Deep Bay faces pollution and development pressure, so protected wetlands like Mai Po matter for the birds that depend on it.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List