Taxonomy
The species was originally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1790. It was historically considered to be closely related to Ardea but for some time it was placed in its own genus because of the absence of the plumes typical in that genus. Appearance and behaviour are more closely related to those in the genus Egretta, which DNA analysis has confirmed.
Subspecies E. n. novaehollandiae and E. n. parryi in Australia, E. n. nana from New Caledonia and E. n. austera from Irian Jaya have previously been described, but are now not recognised taxonomically.
Read more about this topic: White-faced Heron