Great Egret

Last summer I saw this stately looking bird strutting around the shoreline; it's a Great Egret.

This is their preferred way of foraging for food, to walk along shallow water and gobble up fish. Similar to its Great Blue Heron cousin, they'll generally eat pretty much any animal small enough to swallow whole. (They don't have the tools to tear something up.) I'm not sure how well it tolerates poisonous species though, so it's possible it leaves some of our butterflies and toads alone.

While wading in shallow water for food is their specialty, a hungry egret might swim after fish or even try and hover over the water and dive after one. Though the latter attempts might be done a bit awkwardly, they're better than going hungry.

Did you know that there's really not a biological distinction between herons and egrets? The closest relative of the Great Egret in my area is the Great Blue Heron, and vice versa. They're both in the Ardea genus.

September 18, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 168281708, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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