Snowy Egret in flowing water (advice needed)

This is my first time birding! (Okay, more like I saw this bird and took a picture of it)
They were taken handheld, 1/15 F18, diffraction and slow shutter speed makes everything soft.
Do you guys think B&W or color is better? C&C highly appreciated, thank you!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q4dq​nJ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qkLh​bt

I think the B&W is better as it looks more dramatic.

B&W is better by a long shot IMO. I think it is a very nice capture.

It's a very nice capture. Black and White works better for me too! Also, you can't expect the bird to be sharp when using a slow shutter so don't beat your self up over it!

I love the slower shutter speed. Really worked well with this water. I think folks are picking the B&W because of the increased contrast. Try burning the darker areas of the water in color image. to bring out contrast and structure.

BW for me. Great job.

Great shot! With the slow shutter speed, I'm surprised the Egret stayed that still!
Def B&W. There's not much color in it to begin with so the color one looks a little dull. Go B&W then bump up the levels, contrast, and maybe sharpness. I like the pose in the B&W one too.

B&W. Great shots, and great use of slow shutter. The advice to increase the contrast is good. Herons will often stand still for a long time (they are waiting for food to come by), and in many places they are used to people and don't spook easily. They also fly slowly, so are great for BIF.

Thank you all for the advice, greatly appreciate it! I Further processed the pictures.

Tuned the gamma, strong high pass sharpening to bring out the egret’s contour, and boosted the vibrancy in the coloured one (I tried to make it B&W, but somehow it just doesn’t look good)

Oh, BTW, I used a Sony A7 with Canon EF-S 55-250, I never got the hang of Sony’s colour reproduction, gonna sell it soon!!!!!

Yes, the egret was waiting for fishes to come by, I saw it plucking out 3 fishes in the span of around 15 minutes!!! Shutter speed of 1/15 is perfectly fine for the bird; the softness is predominately deal to small aperture: F18 and camera shake.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qmnB​aF

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q4P9​MU

B&W for me, we done for using the slow shutter speeds, water looks great.