Great White Egret (Ardea alba)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

I took the two photos, above and below, at few years ago at the expansive and well-known Luther Marsh, north-west of Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.  The Luther Marsh can be a bit of a hotspot in southern Ontario each year for Great Egrets.   

This elegant wader, with the a heavy yellow bill and black legs, can be found across the extreme lower reaches of Canada in summer and fall, and in eight or nine eastern U.S. states as well as  the eastern coastline of the U.S. from southern Canada, through Florida and down to Mexico, plus the coastlines of three western coast U.S states.

Egrets populations were decimated by hunting for their white feathers back about 1900, when their recovery was due largely thanks to the Audubon Society, a newly formed birding association at the time.

This bird is widely regarded as a form of the Great Blue Heron.

    

In the two photos above and below, A Great Blue Heron and and a Great White Egret encounter each other in a small pond in Aurora, Ontario, but the meeting quickly becomes a dispute.   In this encounter, the Great Blue Heron prevailed.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder