This Week’s Photo of the Week is About a Great Bird

Charlie Fineran’s Photo of the Week focuses on a GREAT one: The GREAT EGRET.

Formally known as the “American Egret”, “Common Egret”, “Large Egret”, “Great White Egret” and “Great White Heron” this bird’s official name in North America is now Great Egret. **Like all egrets, it is a member of the heron family, ‘Ardeidae’. Traditionally classified with storks in the ‘Ciconiiformes’, the ‘Ardeidae’ are closer relatives of pelicans and belong in the ‘Pelecaniformes’ instead. The great egret – unlike the typical egrets – does not belong in the genus ‘Egretta’ but together with the great herons is today in ‘Ardea’.**

I find it very interesting how the scientists are constantly reviewing their notes are not shy about making changes in classifications and names as information and evidence is uncovered! (NOTE: It was also interesting for me to review my archive photos of this bird over the last 20 years, and then, noticing the various different names, I had assigned it, according to whatever time period the photo was from!)

One of the most magnificent of the herons, this bird was once hunted for the millinery (hat) trade, those hunters carried out a historic persecution which almost ended in the bird’s extinction by the early 1900s!! Fortunately they recovered from that historic persecution by plume hunters! The great egret was ‘Not out of the woods yet’, their recovering population, slowly increasing in numbers, was soon to face a new challenge, the use of DDT!! DDT also negatively affected their populations, and it wasn’t until the ban on DDT in 1970’s that they finally began to recover. Fortunately, they have recovered!!

QUESTION: What is the difference between a heron and an egret?

ANSWER: The key difference between the heron and the egret is in their height difference. Egrets are smaller in height than herons. Another key difference is the color of their legs, egret leg’s are usually black, while the heron’s legs are light, gray or brown.

Much like the Great Blue Heron, it usually feeds alone, stalking fish, frogs, snakes and crayfish in shallow water. Every summer many individuals, especially young ones, wander far north of the breeding grounds. These carnivorous birds have special adaptations of long legs for wading and a sharp bill designed for grasping or spearing slippery prey. The great egret’s neck, like all herons, contains a modified vertebrae that gives the bird’s neck its characteristic “S” shape and that provides the bird with a swift stabbing motion.

A few facts gleaned from my research:

DESCRIPTION – 35-41 inches – W 4’7” A large, all white heron with yellow bill and black legs. In breeding plumage, has long lacy plumes on back. Males and females look alike. It has a slow flight with its neck retracted.

VOICE – A guttural croak. Also loud squawks at nesting colonies

HABITAT – Freshwater lakes, fresh and salt marshes, marshy ponds, Rivers, lagoons and tidal flats.

DIET – The great egret feeds in shallow water or frier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, small mammals and occasionally small reptiles and insects. They usually spear prey with its long sharp bill, most of the time by standing still and allowing the prey to come within striking distance. It may also slowly stalk a victim. They are diurnal (day) feeders and return to community roosts at night.

Kids hungry? The young are fed by regurgitation by both parents.

The great egret is a large bird without a lot of predators. Main threats are habitat loss, pesticides, snakes, owls, hawks and alligators, the last of which are of no concern to us in NJ!