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Written By Karl VonBerg.

Posted on September 29th, 2022.

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Have you ever been driving and something catches your attention?  Something that you can’t quite make sense of, so you stop to investigate?

This happened to me one fall day in early October in the western Catskills.  I was driving along and saw a large white object in a tree.

White object in a tree

White object in a tree

I couldn’t make sense of what it was right away, so I stopped to check it out in more detail.

I don’t think of completely white birds in the Catskills.  Maybe you birders do.

big white bird in a tree

Big white bird in a tree

Anyway, I reviewed some possibilities in my mind and thought: “There is a white form of great blue heron, but maybe it’s an…”

Egret?

great egret

Egret?

Being an old-timer, I didn’t think to look it up on my phone right away to see if I had a match.  But when I got back to the office, I looked it up and confirmed that it was a great egret.

How did I realize that?

  • Yellow bill
  • Black legs
  • The white morph of great blue heron doesn’t have either of those characteristics.
  • Other egrets don’t have the yellow bill.

It turns out great egrets migrate through New York State on their way south, so it makes sense that I saw this one in early October.

Here are some other fun facts about great egrets:

  • They are in the heron family and slightly smaller than a great blue heron.
  • They are 3’-tall.
  • They have a wingspan of 4 ½’ to 5 ½’.
  • They hunt like a heron by standing still in water or slowly wading and then jabbing a fish with their bill.
  • The mating plumes on great egrets were used in ladies’ hats.  They were hunted, almost to extinction, in the late 1900s because of this. 
  • Young may kill their siblings in the nest.
  • They cruise at 25 MPH with slow, powerful wing beats.
  • They may occasionally swim or hover to catch fish.
  • The oldest known great egret was almost 23 years old.

So, keep your eyes peeled especially in the spring and fall for unusual looking birds and who knows what you might see.

great egret long extended neck

Great egret showing its long, extended neck


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