From Opus

Egretta thula

Breeding adult
Photo by: 2 Peacefog 2
San Diego, California

[edit] Identification

55-65 cm

• All white plumage
• Nape plume (longer in summer)
• Thin black bill
• Long black legs with yellow feet
• The area between the nostrils and eyes, is yellow but turns red during the breeding season (February-July).
  

Juvenile: similar to the adult; bill base is paler. The legs have a green or yellow line down the back.

[edit] Similar Species

Little Egret^[2]

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in North America on the east coast from Long Island south to Florida, on the Gulf Coast and inland in the lower Mississippi Valley, on the southern California coast and also in scattered inland areas mainly from the Central Valley of California east to Colorado. To the south breeds on both Mexican coasts and over much of Central America and in South America south to Valdivia in Chile in the west and Buenos Aires, Argentina in the east.

Northernmost and inland populations are migratory and move southwards, coastal birds are more sedentary but post-breeding dispersal takes some birds north to southern Canada.

Adult in non-breeding plumage and coloration
Photo by Gary Clark
Acapulco, Mexico

In the Western Palearctic recorded three times in or near Iceland, and five have been seen in the Azores. The first, and so far only, British record was of an immature on Seil Island in Argyll, Scotland in October 2001 and still present in the general area in June 2002. After a brief disappearance it turned up again on the Solway Firth in September 2002.

[edit] Taxonomy

Slightly larger western USA birds are sometimes separated as brewsteri.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• E. t. thula:

• Western US to Baja California and coastal north-western Mexico

• E. t. brewsteri:

• Locally from US to central Argentina and West Indies

[edit] Habitat

Lakeshores and riverbanks, mangroves, shallow lagoons and on tidal mudflats and estuaries, sometimes on grasslands.

Photo by macshark
Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto, California, June 2009

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

Colonial nesters, forming flat, shallow nests made of sticks and lined with fine twigs and rushes. Three or four greenish-blue, oval eggs are incubated by both adults. The young leave the nest in 20 to 25 days.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes fish, crustaceans, and insects, which are hunted in shallow water.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. An identification essay comparing Little and Snowy Egrets
3. Wikipedia
4. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6

• List of references

[edit] External Links