Great Egret

Most of the egrets were hunted in the past for their plume feathers and sold to the clothing industry. During the breeding season, some of their feathers become very ornate. Like herons, egrets have long necks, long bills, long legs and short tails. The Great Egret is the largest and is about the same size as a Great Blue Heron (GBH).

While they are not as anti-social as the Great Blue Herons, which rarely are seen in groups of more than a couple except in breeding season, they don't gather in the numbers that the Snowy Egrets do.  If you see a group of a hundred snowies, you might see five Great Egrets in amongst them. Perhaps it is just that they are not as prolific.

Unlike Snowy Egrets and GBH's which eat some fairly large fish, I have never seen a Great Egret eat anything larger than the fish shown here.  I'm not sure why that is. They are slow and methodical in technique and seem perfectly content to eat small fish. 

This one was fishing along a creek that connects the Bay with a marsh. Their spine, starting at the head, runs down the back of their neck. Where you see that crook half-way down their neck, the spine and esophagus switch sides, with the spine running down the front of their neck and the esophagus in back. While a few GBH's will brave winters on the Bay, the Great Egrets migrate south in early fall.