The great white egret is a graceful, large, and slender bird. The great white egret is also called the white, egret, great egret, the common egret, and the American egret. The loss of habitat and pollution is causing the egret's population to decrease.
The egret has an amazing layer of soft feathery feathers during the breeding time. The bird is thirty-five to forty-one inches (eighty-nine to one hundred four centimeters). The American egret has a fifty-five inch (one hundred forty centimeters) wingspan. The bird is only white except for its yellow bill. Its bill is also large. A great white egret is a little smaller than the great blue heron.
The young develop feathers on their heads, necks, and backs only for the mating season. The feathers are beautiful and very delicate.
It lives on five of the continents. Its habitat includes coastal lagoons, marshes, and savannas.
It lives from Oregon to Massachusetts and to South America.
The bird finds food in marshlands. It finds its prey by coiling its neck ready to stab fish. Its diet includes fish, reptiles, and water invertebrates. During the dry months, it will eat small mammals, nesting birds, and snails.
The bird's nest is made of small twigs and sticks and can be anywhere from six to forty feet above water. The egret lays one to six pale green eggs. The eggs take twenty-three to twenty-six days to incubate. The babies are fed the same way as great blue herons. The young great blue herons and great white egrets are fed by their parent putting its bill in the baby's throat to be fed partially digested frogs, fish, and other foods.
The bird's voice is hoarse with a deep sounding croak.