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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Great White Egret
Great White Egret
Ardea alba
(Large Egret, Great American Egret, American Egret, Great White Heron, White Heron, Common Egret, Great Egret)
Photography © Terry Fountain
Loch Grogarry - Stilligarry - South Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
14th January, 2008
Our Great White Egret photographs
Great White Egret Great White Egret Great White Egret
flight
- Great White Egret (Large Egret, Great American Egret, American Egret, Great White Heron, White Heron, Common Egret, Great Egret)
- Ardea alba
- UK: Scarce visitor
- UK: Just 6 annual records BTO
- WI: Vagrant / rare visitor less than 5 records
- Breeds: in colonies in trees in tropical & warmer temperate parts of the world
- Habitat: Marshy places shallow water, reedbed, lakes, rivers
- Large, (approx as grey heron) all white, yellow bill, black legs & feet:
- Diet: Insects, fish, frogs, small mammals
The Great White Egret develops a set of long showy feathers which spread like a very large fan. It uses them in courtship displays. In the late 19th and early 20th century the species was decimated by the requirements of the fashion trade as humans emulated the herons. At one time the feathers were weight-for-weight more expensive than gold.
This Egret is shy and vigilant, the only time it is easy to approach is when sitting on eggs, so this is when the birds were most frequently shot.
The species is now recovering and has repopluated many areas from which it had disappeared.
Great White Egret records in the Western Isles
Vagrant / rare visitor less than 5 records
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F
M
A
M
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A
S
O
N
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(Source: Outer Hebrides Birds Checklist)
A Great White Egret recently wintered in the Uists from October 2007 - April 2008
Sources of information for the bird sightings section
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