Great Egrets Like Privacy

The Great Egret (Ardea albus) is a member of the heron family with pristine white plumage and a very long neck. Standing on long black legs, this slender, elegant bird is smaller than its cousin, the Great Blue Heron, but quite a bit larger than our other white heron, the Snowy Egret. It can be found feeding in both freshwater and saltwater habitats, from marshes and mud flats, to rivers, ponds and lakes. Active during the day, it searches for fish, crayfish, snakes, frogs and aquatic insects by slowly wading in shallow waters with neck outstretched. You are more likely to observe this egret along our coastal wetlands, but can see it further inland during migration and after the breeding season is over, when it feeds along inland waterways.

In Connecticut, the Great Egret is known to nest only on treed offshore islands in Long Island Sound that are uninhabited by humans. Breeding began in mid-April. A colony of great egrets will join other heron species on these island rookeries, choosing nest sites 20 to 40 feet high in the trees. A great egret nest is a large platform built mainly of sticks and twigs, sometimes lined with plant material. Both parents incubate the three to five blue-green eggs for about 24 days. The gangly nestlings will grow rapidly on a diet of regurgitated fish, frogs and crayfish that the adults bring back to the island from mainland feeding grounds. At three weeks of age the young will leave the nest proper to walk among nearby tree branches. They will not fly for another two weeks or so and will continue to be utterly dependent on their parents for food and protection for several weeks.

During the breeding season adult great egrets don beautiful breeding plumage. The yellow bill turns orangish, and long, delicate, wispy feathers cascade over the bird's back. In the late 1800s and early 1900s market hunters wiped out whole colonies of nesting great egrets and other bird species in order to collect these showy plumes for the latest fashion craze - elegant feathers on women's hats. Thankfully, laws were passed to protect birds from such slaughter in the early 1900s. The great egret has since made a comeback, though the continuing degradation and loss of wetland habitats in Connecticut has not allowed its populations to return to previous numbers. It is listed as a threatened species in our state.

Despite the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's efforts to educate the boating public with educational signs posted on the islands, disturbance at island rookery sites by humans has proven disastrous in recent years. The birds abandoned several sites in 2002 due to irresponsible human behavior. Visitors had cookouts, allowed their dogs to roam freely, and built a bonfire near a fence enclosing a rookery. Please obey all posted signs this spring and summer and ask your boating friends to do the same. Allow nesting birds an opportunity to successfully raise their young.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak
Photo by Dennis Riordan

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Last updated 18 September, 2004 .