Egrets

All 4 species of egrets on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 171 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• It came to the brink of extinction because its breeding plumes were worth more than gold to the hat trade.

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• It hunts by stirring the bottom with its yellow feet to flush out prey, a technique known as foot stirring that has earned it the nickname "golden slippers".

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• Mass hunting to sell its ornamental plumes to the millinery trade in the late 19th century almost wiped it out; its recovery lies at the origin of the American conservation movement.

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• The young are born wholly white and take on the adult's characteristic blue-grey gradually over their first year.

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• It changes colour completely as it matures: it hatches white and moults to slate blue, passing through a mottled intermediate stage that ornithologists call "calico".

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• Its resemblance as a juvenile to the snowy egret is no coincidence: they are close relatives within the genus Egretta.

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• It was hunted on a massive scale in the nineteenth century for its breeding plumes, used on hats.

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Ecosystems