Small snow-white heron with slender dark bill, blackish legs, and yellowish feet ("golden slippers"). Breeding adult has 2 long wispy head plumes and a spray of white plumes ("aigrettes") on the lower back. Inhabits a wide variety of wetlands: lakes, rivers, marshes, estuaries—almost anywhere with small fish. Occurs as singles or small loose groups; nests and roosts communally. Distinctive within its range, but compare with larger Great and Intermediate Egrets, stockier Cattle Egret, and white morph reef herons.
The Little Egret is a small white heron with attractive white plumes on crest, back and chest, black legs and bill and yellow feet. It first appeared in the UK in significant numbers in 1989 and first bred in Dorset in 1996. Its arrival followed naturally from a range expansion into western and northern France in previous decades. It is now at home on numerous south coast sites, both as a breeding species and as a winter visitor.
With its yellow feet, which are used to flush prey when feeding in shallow water, the Little Egret is a distinctive member of the heron family.
Little Egrets first bred in Britain in 1996 and since then have successfully colonised much of southern Britain and Ireland. Most of the breeding colonies have been established within existing Grey Heron colonies, the two species nesting alongside one another.
The winter distribution is also currently restricted to the southern half of Britain & Ireland, despite the fact that young birds are known to move some distance from their natal site.
The little egret is widely distributed throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It is reasonably common in most states of Australia but is listed as threatened in Victoria. The main threats to little egrets elsewhere are from coastal reclamation and wetland draining, especially in its feeding and breeding areas of Asia. In New Zealand, little egrets occur almost exclusively in estuarine habitats.
