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Western Reef Herons are medium-sized herons. Their plumage comes in two morphologies, white and grey. White Western Reef Herons are all-white (we have seen a specimen with grey nuchal plumes). Grey Western Reef Herons are all-slate-grey, except for a white chin patch. Both morphologies have nuchal plumes. The irises of both morphologies are yellow. The bill, which is longer and thinner than that of an Intermediate Egret's, has a grey upper mandible, possibly with a brownish tip, and a brown lower one. The bill takes on a more orange hue during the breeding season. The legs are grey, while the feet are greyish-yellow. Some individuals have dark bill and/or mixed dark and white plumage. Juveniles have a light-grey front and a darker-grey back.

Former race "sacra" has been given full species status as the Eastern Reef Egret ("Egretta [Ardea] sacra").

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Western Reef Heron is available HERE .

There are three races of Western Reef Herons, nominate race "gularis", race "schistacea" and race "dimorpha". Race "gularis" is found in West Africa (in part also inland), on the Azores and in rare cases in Spain. Race "dimorpha" populates Madagascar and the south-eastern African coastline near Madagascar. Race "schistacea" occurs in (near-)coastal regions around the Red Sea, along the coastline of Arabia, Iraq, Iran and into Pakistan and all along the coastline of the Indian subcontinent (but not Bangladesh).

In Oman we have found both grey-morphology and white-morphology Western Reef Herons, race "schistacea", on the North coast of the country, but they populate basically the entire coastal fringe of the Arabian peninsula.

Western Reef Herons can be found in both freshwater and salt water habitats, usually along or near oceanic coastlines.

Race "schistacea"