What do they look like?

Great egrets are less than 1 meter long from bill to tail, are about 1 meter tall, and have a wingspan of about 1.5 meters. They usually weigh between 912 and 1140 grams. Males tend to be larger than females. They are white with a long yellow bill and with dark grey legs.

Where in the world do they live?

Great egrets are found in the Nearctic as far south as Texas, the Gulf coast states, and Florida up the Atlantic coast to Maine and southern Canada, and west to the Great Lakes.

What kind of habitat do they need?

The ideal location for great egrets is near any form of water. Streams, lakes, ponds, mud flats, saltwater and freshwater marshes are inhabited by this beautiful bird. Wooded swamps and wetlands are the preferred location for great egrets and other heron species.

How do they reproduce?

Great egrets mate with one mate each season. Males are in charge of finding a home and attracting a female.

Great egrets usually build their nests around other egrets. Nests are a platform made of sticks, twigs, and stems built high up in a tree. Eggs are greenish blue, and both the male and female aid in hatching. Great egrets tend to lay 3-4 eggs. They raise one brood each year. Breeding season begins in mid-August.

Both males and females aid in incubating and feeding their young. Young nestlings are fed by regurgitation, which is when the parent eats food, and then pushes it back out of its mouth and down a baby's mouth. When the nestlings are a little older they will grab the food from their parent.

How long do they live?

Great egrets have a lifespan of about 15 years in the wild (22 in captivity).

How do they behave?

Great egrets are very territorial, and will defend their nests, mates, and young. They feed at dusk, and roost together. Young hurons often follow their parents on long journeys. On these trips they often take food from smaller herons.

Home Range

There is no information available on the home range for this species at this time.

How do they communicate with each other?

Great grets communicate through elaborate courtship rituals, and with vocalizations that are a harsh low “corr”. Much of the way these birds communicate is illustrated by their elaborate courtship dances, and territoriality. When defending their territory they may squawk harshly, leap at, or jab their beak at the intruder.

What do they eat?

Frogs, snakes, crayfish, fish, mice, crickets, aquatic insects, grasshoppers, and many other insects constitute the typical diet of a great egret. Other large wading birds have similar feeding habits and compete with great egrets for food resources.

As opportunistic predators, great egrets usually feed on smaller aquatic and terrestrial insects and vertebrates and are considered to be heterotrophs. Wading slowly through the water, they are extremely successful at striking and catching fish or insects. Studies found that, standing still, great egrets were able to ingest more prey of intermediate size than if they moved around. This suggests that their goal is not to catch the largest quantity of food, but to catch high quality food.

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

Adult great egrets have no non-human predators and now have some legal protection against humans. However, eggs and nestlings are exposed to numerous predators including crows (family Corvidae), vultures (family Cathartidae), and raccoons (Procyon lotor, which are the most threatening).

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

As predators great egrets affect the populations of their prey.

Do they cause problems?

There are no known adverse affects of great egrets on humans.

How do they interact with us?

Prior to the 20th century there was great demand for the lacey plumage of great egrets for women's hats and other fashionable garments.

Are they endangered?

Prior to the 20th century, the population of great egrets was nearly decimated by the demand for their lacey plumage for women’s hats and other fashionable garments. With great concern for the welfare of great egrets, legal restrictions were placed on the harvesting of this animal. Great egrets were placed under the protection of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918. By the mid 1900's populations of great egrets were steadily on the rise. Today, populations are doing well. However, there are still many human-induced threats to the survival of great egrets. Loss of habitat, water pollution, and various air pollutants all contribute to the dangers faced by great egrets. Hydrocarbons are especially problematic because they cause great egrets to lay thinner eggs that are more susceptible to cracking or damage before the young hatch. Mercury has been found at high levels in the feathers of numerous avian species including great egrets. The amount of mercury found depends on age, sex, geographic location, and mercury concentrations in the habitat around them including the air, soil and organisms they consume. These contaminations have also been found to negatively effect behavior, physiology, and reproduction.

Contributors

Jessica Jones (author), Western Maryland College: May, 2002. Randall L. Morrison (editor), Western Maryland College: May, 2002.

Alaine Camfield (editor), Animal Diversity Web.

References

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Chisholm, D. 2001. Showy snowy and great egrets!. Photographic Society of America Journal, November: 32.

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, 2000. "Wildlife in Connecticut" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://dep.state.ct.us/burnatr/wildlife/factshts/gegret.htm.

Drummond, H. 2001. A revaluation of the role of food in broodmate aggression. Animal Behaviour, 61: 517-526.

Gough, G., J. Sauer, M. Iliff. 1998. "Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/infocenter.html .

Hill, K. 2001. "Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLSpec/Ardea_alba.htm.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources, 1998. "Illinois Natural History Survey" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/chf/pub/ifwis/birds/great-egret.html.

Kushlan, J. 1978. Nonrigorous foraging by robbing egrets. Ecology, 59, No. 4: 649-653.

Oregon Zoo, 2002. "Oregon Zoo Animals:Great Egret" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://www.zooregon.org/Cards/Cascades/great_egrets.htm.

Sheehey, A. 1998. "A Field Guide to the Birds of Kern County" (On-line). Accessed 11/20/2003 at http://www.natureali.com/GrEg.htm.