The Story
On March 22, 2018, I photographed this Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) near the Mai Po Marshes in Hong Kong’s northwest New Territories. 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. The Mai Po Marshes nature reserve covers 380 acres on Deep Bay, a shallow estuary of international importance.
I used a Pentax K-1 and the HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW for this one, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, 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