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Great Egret

Great Egret in Flight at Anahuac NWR

Great Egret with crawfish at Anahuac NWR on the Texas Gulf Coast

Casmerodius albus

Wingspan: 55"
Length: 37 - 41"
Weight: 32 - 40 oz.





Physical description:

Stately, large, slender white heron with a yellow bill (orange while breeding) with black legs and feet.

M/F outwardly similar.

Habitat:

Marshes, ponds, shores, mud flats.


   Great Egret - Anahuac NWR




A feeding Great Egret assumes an eager, forward-leaning stance with neck extended.

Great Egret - Anahuac NWR

   Great Egret - Anahuac NWR

Great Egrets feed on frogs, salamanders, snakes (mainly water moccasins, or cottonmouths), crawfishes, mice, cotton rats, aquatic insects, mole crickets, grasshoppers, and moths.



Great Egret in breeding plumage with some of his friends wait patiently by shrimp boats in Galveston, Texas

Great Egret in breeding plumage waits patiently by shrimp boats in Galveston, Texas

 

Great Egrets have no crest or head plumes.  

Instead, in January both sexes have splendid capes (nuptial train) of up to 54" long - flowing white plumes growing from the back which are lost by summer.


Stunning "Nuptial Train" Breeding Plumage

Anahuac NWR on the Texas Gulf Coast

   Stunning "Nuptual Train" Breeding Plumage

Great Egret with Breeding Plumage at Anahuac NWR

   Great Egret with Breeding Plumage
Anahuac NWR

These Great Egrets were nesting not far from a country road in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

Nesting Great Egrets - Cameron Parish, Louisiana




Great Egrets usually nest 20 - 40 feet above the ground in medium-sized trees.

The nest is a flimsy platform of sticks and twigs or stems of marsh plants with little or no lining.		 Great Egrets sitting on nests - Cameron Parish, Louisiana



3 - 5 pale blue eggs.

24 days incubation.

First flights of young about 42 days after hatching.