Bird name:

Little Egret

Egretta garzetta

Order

CICONIIFORMES

Family

Bitterns, Herons and Egrets (Ardeidae)

Code 4

LIEG

Code 6

EGRGAR

ITIS

174816

Breeding Location:

Swamps

Breeding Type:

Colonial

Breeding Population:

Rare to casual

Egg Color:

Green blue

Number of Eggs:

2 - 6

Incubation Days:

21 - 25

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Mainly sticks and plant stems.

Migration:

Northern birds migrate

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General

Little Egret: Medium-sized, all white egret with plumes on head, breast, and back, black legs with yellow feet, black bill, and yellow lores. Sexes are similar. Nonbreeding adult lacks head and back plumes, has gray lores, and shows yellow on lower legs. Juvenile resembles nonbreeding adult but lacks breast plumes and has mostly black legs. Difficult to distinguish from Snowy Egret.

Range and Habitat

Little Egret: Widespread in Africa, Asia, Europe, Indian and Southeast Asia, very rarely wanders to the north Atlantic states of North America.

Breeding and Nesting

Little Egret: Nests in colonies on ground or in trees. Lays five or six green blue eggs that both parents incubate for 21 to 25 days. Chicks make first flight when 40 to 45 days old.

Foraging and Feeding

Little Egret: Feeds along shorelines, in wet or dry fields, and may often follow cattle. Eats a wide variety of insects, small fish, crustaceans, amphibians and other small animals.

Vocalization

Little Egret: Generally silent or harsh croak.

Similar Species

Little Egret: Snowy Egret is virtually identical except that its yellow facial skin continues over the top of the bill instead of being interrupted by a small patch of white feathers.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Plumes

Large, conspicuous, showy feathers.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America