I googled it and the intermediate egret winters in Thailand and nearby countries, but breeds in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, China (north to Szechwan, Hunan), Korea, Japan (Honshu, Shikoku), and a few in Indonesia (Java, Sumatra).

The purple swamphen, now renamed the black-backed swamphen breeds mainly in India and Pakistan June-Sept.

@birdingnut, thank you for having done the google thing this time. your considerate knowledge & resources about birds, which sky-high surpasses mine, are much appreciated here - i just love birds

@walklightly When questioning a bird photo's ID, I consulted my Thailand birds field guide, but now I just google photos of the species. Last night I found a photo in my archives I'd labeled a Yellow Heron, even though it didn't look right. I'd attributed the weird color to my messing with RAW settings, but when I checked the pic against google photos, I decided it was a juvenile Cinnamon bittern, which I'd never seen before, so a sort of "lifer!"

@birdingnut

Yup.

@birdingnut They're marvelous. You must have a lot of patience. Do you use a zoom lens?

@pixiedust Thanks! I have a Canon EOS 7d and use a Canon 200-400mm zoom lens.I started photographing birds once digital cameras improved enough to be useful, and I even moved to Thailand because my Thai university student showed me photos of birds he'd taken here.