Subspecies Ardea alba modesta Gray, 1831

Museums

Museum list

Regional Maps

Subspecies Ardea alba modesta Gray, 1831

Eastern Great Egret (name applied to Australian subspecies A. a. modesta, sometimes treated as a distinct species), Great Egret

Ardea modesta Gray, J.E. 1831. Descriptions of three new species of Heron, Ardea, discovered by General Hardwicke, in India. Zoological Miscellany 19-20 [19].
Type data:
Holotype BMNH missing skin, India.
Type locality references:
Sharpe, R.B. & Ogilvie-Grant, W.R. 1898. Catalogue of the Plataleae, Herodiones, Steganopodes, Pygopodes, Alcae, and Impennes in the Collection of the British Museum. London : Trustees British Museum Vol. 26 pp. xvii + 687. [95]; Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp. [194].
Herodias syrmatophorus Gould, J. 1846. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 6. [pl. 56].
Type data:
Lectotype ANSP 6713 (VN 1703) skin, New South Wales.
Paralectotype(s) ANSP 6714 (VN 1704) skin, New South Wales; ANSP 6714 (VN 1705) skin, New South Wales.
Type locality references:
Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 109: 123-246 [19].
Egretta alba neglecta Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [230].
Type data:
Holotype AMNH 529775 skin, Parrys Creek, East Kimberly, Western Australia [15°36'S 128°17'E].
Type locality references:
Greenway, J.C. Jnr 1973. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Part 1. Tinamidae, Spheniscidae, Gaviidae, Podicipedidae, Diomedeidae, Procellariidae, Hydrobatidae, Pelecanoididae, Phaethontidae, Pelecanidae, Sulidae, Phalacrocoracidae, Anhingidae, Fregatidae, Ardeidae, Cochleariidae, Scopidae, Ciconiidae, Threskiornithidae, Phoenicopteridae, Anatidae, Cathartidae, Accipitridae, Falconidae, Megapodiidae, Cracidae, Tetraonidae, Phasianidae, Numididae, Meleagrididae, Turnicidae, Pedionomidae, Gruidae, Rallidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 150(3): 207-346 [242].

Generic Combinations

Casmerodius alba modesta (Gray, 1831) [Ardea alba sometimes placed in monotypic genus Casmerodius]. —
Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp.

Miscellaneous Literature Names

Casmerodius modesta Gray, 1831 [a misidentification - see Introduction]. —
Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [110, 112]

Introduction

This subspecies was split from Ardea alba and treated at the species level as Casmerodius modesta by Christidis & Boles (2008) (and others) based on the work of Sheldon (1987) and McCracken & Sheldon (2002). However Pratt (2011) believed this to be a misinterpretation of the genetic and morphological data available, noting that Sheldon (1987) only presented evidence suggesting that A. a. egretta and A. a. modesta could be considered separate species, and that splitting modesta from A. alba was an unjustified extrapolation of the results. Sheldon (1987) did not include A. a. alba in his analysis and Pratt (2011) stated that modern genetic studies of all subspecies of A. alba were needed, along with behavioural and morphological data, to fix species limits in the complex. Here we follow Gill et al. 2021 and retain modesta as a subspecies of Ardea alba until such studies are conducted.

CAVS: 8712

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Throughout Australia, regularly observed in the IBRA regions indicated, but also sighted irregularly in other bioregions.

IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Jarrah Forest (JF), King (KIN), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Stony Plains (STP), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)