Egrets I know a few, a few I’ll mention. I thought I would introduces some lovely big white birds that you can see at this time of year and which are lovely natural increase stories to brighten January.

An egret is a type of heron and like the grey heron you may have noticed on the river or eyeing up your garden pond from the neighbour’s roof, they have long legs, long necks and beaks which could be best described as ‘stabby’. Also worth noting that they are able to pull their neck back into their feathers so it looks rather short and stout when they are in flight or just hanging around in a field. If you see a large white bird in flight in the sky above you with it’s neck outstretched it’s not an egret.

The first egret to become quite common nationally was the Little Egret. They first bred in Dorset in 1966 after a natural range expansion through Northern France. They often nest within a nesting group of grey herons, usually in the tops of trees (such a nesting colony is helpfully known as a heronry) and there are now over 1000 pairs in the country.  Little egrets tend to be found foraging along rivers or in wet ditches and they eat small fish, usually around 4cm in size. They will also take amphibians, small mammals, crustaceans, worms, snails, snakes and the aquatic larvae of many insects.
Of the three egrets, the Little Egret is the medium sized one. Noticeably smaller than a grey heron, this bird has a dark colour beak all year round and during the breeding season develops lovely long plumes on their heads and upper body which are flaunted in courtship. They have long dark legs with yellow feet, a feature that the other two species lack.

The largest of the three egrets you may encounter is the Great White Egret. You may come across these feeding in rivers or wet ditches or just standing in a field resting (technical term is ‘loafing’). They are very sensitive to disturbance and will usually fly away very quickly as you approach. They are as big as the more commonly seen Grey Heron, but less stout with a longer neck and more slender body. They began breeding in the UK in 2010 and until recently were very rarely seen at all. During the breeding season they have a dark bill like the little egret but usually their legs appear paler and they never have yellow feet. Outside of the breeding season they have a bright yellow beak which means it is very easy to identify them even at distance at this time. There are thought to be more than 60 pairs now and though most of these breed in Somerset,  they range much more widely in the winter months and a few breed at other locations in England too. Like most herons, they will eat whatever they think they can swallow, mostly taking fish of around 25cm or less in size but also amphibians, reptiles and mammals. I recently saw one catch and eat a brown rat which had been swimming in the water at just the wrong time.

The smallest of the three egrets is the Cattle Egret and you are very lucky indeed if you bump into one of these birds. Unlike the other two species of egret described above, Cattle Egrets are regularly found away from rivers and wetlands and as their name hints, they are usually found amongst livestock. Much smaller, stouter and somehow scruffier than the other two species, the Cattle Egret has a proportionally smaller beak which is always yellow. Amongst the white feathers adult birds develop buff coloured crest and upper body feathers which are never seen in the other two egrets. Cattle Egrets eat the insects disturbed by the feet of cattle as they move through grassland. Insects especially grasshoppers, beetles, flies are regularly taken and helpfully also ticks, which they may even remove directly from the livestock they feed around. They will also take amphibians, reptiles and small mammals. There are thought to be between 60 and 70 pairs breeding in England and numbers increase considerably during the winter months. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a photo for the cattle egret though one was recently seen and filmed at Revesby Estate amongst the deer which will give you an idea of scale when you watch it. You can enter ‘Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis’ into any search engine such as Google or Ecosia and it will produce the right pictures too.

If you see any of these egrets you can report the sighting on Birdtrack or irecord, both are websites and smartphone applications. Alternatively you can write to or email the British Trust for Ornithology with the date and location (preferably a Grid reference) that the bird was seen.

Don’t forget it is garden birdwatch at the end of the month too. I tend to get blackbirds, jackdaw and woodpigeon on my bird table but am hoping for a robin at least!

Gillian Fisher, Ecologist