Things you should know about LITTLE EGRETS!

Little egrets are a small member of the heron family standing at 22 to 26 inches tall. They have a wingspan of 35 to 42 inches and weigh 12 to 19 ounces. Aside from their black legs, bright yellow feet and pointed black beak, they are white over their entire bodies. In the breeding season little egrets develop long feather plumes from the back of their heads and decorative feathers on their wings.
They feed mostly in shallow water, where they ambush and then swallow whole, small invertebrates and fish. Sometimes they can be seen using their bright yellow feet to disturb the sediment or aquatic weeds and then grabbing any creatures that try to swim away. They will also occasionally eat small mammals, amphibians and even birds if they are quick enough to catch them.
Little egrets usually start breeding at 2 years of age when a pair will form from march onwards and begin to construct a twig platform nest. This is usually in close proximity to other egrets, grey herons and sometimes even great cormorants. The nest can be in a tree, bush, reedbed and where the birds live coastally, they will also nest on cliff edges. One the nest is complete the female will lay greenish blue eggs every 1 or 2 days until a clutch of 3 to 5 is formed. The eggs measure 4 and a half centimetres long and are incubated by both parents from when the first is laid. Incubation takes just over 3 weeks and when the chicks hatch, also at 1 to 2 day intervals they are covered in white down. Both parents bring a supply of food which they swallow and then regurgitate for the chicks who are ready to fledge at 40 to 45 days old. The young birds will stay close to their parents for several more weeks whilst they learn to feed themselves after which they may disperse from the breeding territory. Each pair will only nest once per year and if they are successful, will usually remain monogamous for multiple seasons.
For most of their range, little egrets don’t migrate but in some places, particularly in mainland Europe, they will head south for the colder months, sometimes going as far as Africa or southern Asia. In other places where they are resident, egrets will move away from their nesting colony to spend the winter in places where they are more protected from weather extremes and where food might be easier to find.
In the UK Little egrets aren’t the only white member of the heron family, you may also see Great white egrets that are much larger, almost the size of a grey heron with longer necks and yellow beaks and over recent years the country has also been colonised by Cattle egrets which have yellow beaks, lighter coloured legs and in the breeding season have yellow feathers on their heads and backs.
There are currently an estimated 1100 pairs of little egrets in the country with more than 12,000 overwintering here. Their numbers are still rising, and they continue to spread across Scotland and northern Ireland. They have an average lifespan of 5 years but the oldest known bird survived for 14 years 2 months and 3 days after being ringed as a chick.

Special thanks to Graham from @NaturallyCuriousUK and @ScoopoftheDay for allowing me to use some of their footage for this video.

Some of the other footage and images used in this video was obtained through creative commons licences. The originals and their licence details can be found at:

#britishwildlife #britishbirds #birdwatching

[AShotOfWildlife]

Thank you for watching this video and taking a look at the comments!
Cheers.

[liamK]

I live in Dublin and we have so many of these birds along our coast.

Swans and Egrets living side by side.

[trucid]

I'm in awe of all egrets and herons. The birds are majestic.

[foxtanii]

I absolutely adore egrets. Just love them

[usha]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful information. Love to watch on birds & wild Life videos

[baldyhead]

These birds are very common here in Leicestershire, but I'm still fascinated by them, herons and cormorants because they were rarely seen just 20 or so years ago.

[adediver]

Lovely little bird, see them quite often in the river Plym, Devon.
Thanks

[Bertil_Lundin]

Thanks Liam for sharing the facts about the Little Egrats! Greetings from Gothenburg and have a good week! // Bertil.

[cyberlizardcouk]

whenever I see a little egret it always reminds me of going on holiday to spain.

[tonycritcher]

Another lovely informative video. I saw my first little egret on Elmley marshes in June 1985. it was quite a few years before I saw the next one. Now, on the Essex coast it is a poor days birding if you don't see one at least.

[raymondpenalver]

Fascinating facts and info on this once very rare bird, loved the video Liam.

[benj]

I have only discovered this bird in the last 6 months and in the most random of places. There is a section of the river lark that passes through the middle of my local Tesco car park in Suffolk. The egret doesn’t seem phased by the busy traffic. It’s quite common to see it wading for food but there only ever seems to be the one lone bird. Very lovely to watch 😊

[bernardshieldstysonfive]

Hi Liam brilliant video again beautiful looking birds love the information you always put in the video keep up your brilliant work and videos Bernard

[jungseontv]

Good video my friend
Have a happy weekend

[moogdome]

Brilliant. Love your videos. So professional and informative.

[LudwigHohlwein]

Nice one Liam. This is a really nicely put together series of shorts. Keep 'em coming. Cheers

[Tom_Porter]

I live in the Lake district but also part of Morecambe Bay (Ulverston) we have a ever growing number of little egrets that have made our little town their home, the tide comes in twice a day and when at low tide the are always seen along the shore feeding.

[bhaskarrao]

I am from Bangalore India, it's a nice presentation about a very rare bird Egret. Thanks a lot

[Spacey]

Great video Liam, thank you. I saw a big Egret flying over where I was in Cheltenham several evenings in a row at the end of last summer.

[brperolls]

Yet another great video. Thank you Liam