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Great egrets

 

 

Big and graceful birds with snowy white plumage – length almost a metre, weight up to one kilo and a half, and wing span just under a meter and a half. Outside the breeding period the beak of great egrets is yellow, and feet are yellow, but dirty yellow. Unquestionably among Europe’s bird beauties, although tastes can be very different.

 

In August and September great egrets roam around quite widely, over the years ever more towards north, and now a gang of fourteen individuals has arrived in north-western Estonia. In earlier years I have not seen them here.

 

Margus Ots writes: “The great egret is a species with a southerly range, that has become an increasingly common visitor in Estonia in the 2000s. Mainly non-breeding birds are seen from July to September at the Häädemeeste-Võiste coast, the Silma nature protection area, in Ilmatsalu and elsewhere. According to information at the Bird Rarities Committee the first breeding attempt of great egrets was in Tartumaa in the great egret colony at Tüki village; the first definite nesting was recorded in the same location one year later. Although great egrets are also encountered ever more frequently during the breeding period the only known nesting location in Estonia is still only Tüki“.

 

In north-western Estonia they came to forage on the territory of grey herons but they seem to be able to live peacefully with each other – as long as there is enough food: small fish in the coastal lakes and sticklebacks in the shallow shore water.