Egretta garzetta

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found in a lake at a mean distance from sea level of 82 meters (270 feet).[1]

Ecology: Behaviour All populations of this species undergo post-breeding dispersive movements1. Populations breeding in the Palearctic are highly migratory3 whereas others are only sedentary (such as E. g. dimorpha on Madagascar), nomadic1 or partially migratory3. The timing of breeding varies geographically1 although, in general, European and north Asian populations breed in spring and summer (March to July) and the breeding of tropical populations coincides with periods of high rainfall2. The species usually nests in colonies sometimes of thousands of pairs and often with other species1. Some populations also breed solitarily or in small single-species groups of under 100 pairs1. When not breeding the species commonly feeds solitarily or in loose flocks during the day1. Habitat It inhabits fresh, brackish or saline wetlands1 and shows a preference for shallow waters (10-15 cm deep) in open, unvegetated sites where water levels and dissolved oxygen levels fluctuate daily, tidally or seasonally, and where fish are concentrated in pools or at the water's surface2. Habitats frequented include the margins of shallow lakes , rivers , streams and pools, open swamps and marshes, flooded meadows, rafts of floating water hyacinth Eichornia spp. on African lakes2, flood-plains1, lagoons , irrigation canals, aquaculture ponds2, saltpans1 and rice fields (which are especially important in areas with few remaining natural wetland habitats)2, 3. The species also occupies dry fields, inland savannas and cattle pastures1 and some populations are almost entirely coastal, inhabiting rocky or sandy shores , reefs, estuaries, mudflats , saltmarshes, mangroves and tidal creeks1. Diet It is a highly opportunistic feeder2, taking mainly small fish under 20 g in weight and less than 10 cm long1 (averaging 4 cm)2, aquatic and terrestrial insects (e.g. beetles, dragonfly larvae, mole crickets and crickets)2 and crustaceans1 (e.g. Palaemonetes spp., amphipods , phylopods, crabs and exotic species of crayfish)2 as well as amphibians , molluscs1 (snails and bivalves )2, spiders, worms, reptiles and small birds1. Breeding site The species may nest on the ground in protected sites2 or up to 20 m high on rocks, in reedbeds, bushes, trees or mangroves1. It usually nests in single- or mixed-species colonies where nests may be placed 1-4 m apart (sometimes less than 1 m apart)2. It may feed up to 7-13 km away from breeding colonies during the breeding season1. Management information An artificial island nesting site created in the Camargue, France succeeded in attracting nesting pairs to the area4. A study in north-west Italy suggests that existing nesting sites should be protected and that breeding habitats should be actively managed in order to maintain suitable habitat characteristics6. The creation of a network of new nesting sites spaced at 4-10 km in relation to available foraging habitats in zones currently without suitable nesting sites is also recommended6.

[2].

List of Habitats:

•     1     Forest   
  
•     1.7     Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level   
  
•     4     Grassland   
  
•     4.6     Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical Seasonally Wet/Flooded   
  
•     5     Wetlands (inland)   
  
•     5.1     Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls )   
  
•     5.5     Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)   
  
•     5.6     Wetlands (inland) - Seasonal/Intermittent Freshwater Lakes (over 8ha)   
  
•     5.8     Wetlands (inland) - Seasonal/Intermittent Freshwater Marshes/Pools (under 8ha)   
  
•     5.14     Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Saline, Brackish or Alkaline Lakes   
  
•     5.15     Wetlands (inland) - Seasonal/Intermittent Saline, Brackish or Alkaline Lakes and Flats   
  
•     9     Marine Neritic   
  
•     9.8     Marine Neritic - Coral Reef   
  
•     9.8.1     Outer Reef Channel   
  
•     9.8.2     Back Slope   
  
•     9.8.3     Foreslope (Outer Reef Slope)   
  
•     9.8.4     Lagoon   
  
•     9.8.5     Inter-Reef Soft Substrate   
  
•     9.8.6     Inter-Reef Rubble Substrate   
  
•     9.10     Marine Neritic - Estuaries   
  
•     12     Marine Intertidal   
  
•     12.2     Marine Intertidal - Sandy Shoreline and/or Beaches, Sand Bars , Spits , Etc   
  
•     12.3     Marine Intertidal - Shingle and/or Pebble Shoreline and/or Beaches   
  
•     12.4     Marine Intertidal - Mud Flats and Salt Flats   
  
•     12.6     Marine Intertidal - Tidepools   
  
•     13     Marine Coastal/Supratidal   
  
•     13.1     Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Sea Cliffs and Rocky Offshore Islands   
  
•     13.4     Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Brackish/Saline Lagoons/Marine Lakes   
  
•     13.5     Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Freshwater Lakes   
  
•     15     Artificial/Aquatic & Marine   
  
•     15.2     Artificial/Aquatic - Ponds (below 8ha)   
  
•     15.8     Artificial/Aquatic - Seasonally Flooded Agricultural Land   
  
•     15.9     Artificial/Aquatic - Canals and Drainage Channels , Ditches   
[more info]

Biology

Migration

Migratory

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Egretta garzetta (Linnaeus, 1766)

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 17-Oct-2001

Similar Species

Snowy Egret, Great Egret

Members of the genus Egretta

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 30 species and subspecies in this genus:

E. alba (Great White Egret) · E. ardesiaca (Black Egret) · E. caerulea (Little Blue Heron) · E. caerulea caerulea (Little Blue Heron) · E. dimorpha (Madagascar Heron) · E. eulophotes (Swinhoe's Egret) · E. garzetta (Little Egret) · E. garzetta garzetta (Little Egret) · E. garzetta nigripes (Little Egret) · E. gularis (Western Reef Egret) · E. gularis gularis (African Reef Heron) · E. ibis (Cattle Egret) · E. ibis ibis (Cattle Egret) · E. intermedia (Yellow-Billed Egret) · E. intermedia intermedia (Yellow-Billed Egret) · E. novaehollandiae (White-Faced Egret) · E. novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (White-Faced Heron) · E. picata (Pied Heron) · (Dickey's Egret) · E. rufescens dickeyi (Dickey's Egret) · E. rufescens rufescens (Dickey's Egret) · E. sacra (Eastern Reef Egret) · E. sacra sacra (Eastern Reef Egret) · E. thula (Little White Egret) · E. thula brewsteri (Snowy Egret) · E. thula thula (Snowy Egret) · E. tricolor (Tricoloured Heron) · E. tricolor ruficollis (Louisiana Heron) · E. tricolor tricolor (Tricoloured Heron) · E. vinaceigula (Brown-Throaded Heron)

More Info

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Further Reading

• A Directory of Neotropical Wetlands. IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre url p. 618, p. 671.
• A List of British birds / London: British Ornithologists' Union, 1915. url , , , .
• A List of British birds / London: John Van Voorst, 1883. url , .
• A hand-list of British birds, with an account of the distribution of each species in the British Isles and abroad. By Ernst Hartert, F. C. R. Jourdain, N. F. Ticehurst and H. F. Withersby. London, Witherby, 1912. url p. 124.
• A history of British birds, London, Pub. for the author by R. H. Porter [etc.]1883-85. url .
• A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory: including their organization, habits, and relation; remarks on classification and nomenclature; an account of the principal organs of birds, and observations relative to practical ornithology. .. By William Macgillivray. London, Printed for Scott, Webster and Geary, 1837-52. url p. 471, p. 472.
• A history of British birds, with coloured illustrations of their eggs. By Henry Seebohm. London, Pub. for the author by R. H. Porter [etc.]1883-85. url p. 481.
• A history of the birds of Europe: including all the species inhabiting the western palaearctic region / London: Published by the Author, 1871-1881. url p. 239.
• A key to the birds of the lower Yangtse Valley, with popular descriptions of the species commonly seen. By N. Gist Gee. .. and Lacy I. Moffett. Shanghai, Shanghai Mercury Limited, Print., 1917. url p. 22.
• A list of British birds / compiled by a committee of the British Ornithologists' Union. London: J. van Voorst, 1883. url p. 108, p. 215.
• A list of British birds, comp. by a committee of the British ornithologists' union. London: British ornithologists' union, 1915. url p. 193, p. 386.
• A list of the birds of Australia: containing the names and synonyms connected with each genus, species, and subspecies of birds found in Australia, at present known to the author / London: Witherby, 1913. url p. 383, p. 81.
• A list of the genera of birds: with their synonyma an indication of the typical species of each genus / compiled from various sources by George Robert Gray. [London]: R. and J.E. Taylor, 1840. url p. 66.
• A manual of Philippine birds / by Richard C. McGregor. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1909. url p. 167, p. 167, p. 728, p. 728.
• A manual of Philippine birds, by Richard C. McGregor. .. Manila, Bureau of Printing, 1909. url p. 167, p. 728.
• A naturalist on Lake Victoria: with an account of sleeping sickness and the tse-tse fly / by G.D. Hale Carpenter. .. with 2 coloured plates, a map, charts, and 87 illustrations. New York: E. P. Dutton, c1920. url p. 158.
• A naturalist on lake Victoria, with an account of sleeping sickness and the tse-tse fly, by G.D. Hale Carpenter. .. with 2 coloured plates, a map, charts, and 87 illustrations. London, T.F. Unwin ltd.[1920] url p. 158.
• A popular history of British birds' eggs / by Richard Laishley. London: L. Reeve, 1858. url p. 163, p. 303.
• A synoptical catalogue of British birds; intended to identify the species mentioned by different names in several catalogues already extant. Forming a book of reference to Observations on British ornithology. By Thomas Forster. London, Printed by and for Nichols, son, and Bentley, 1817. url p. 59.
• An atlas of the chromosome numbers in animals. Ames, Iowa State College Press[1951] url p. 251.
• An environmental profile of the Black Sea Coast WCMC url p. 26, p. 28, p. 31, p. 32, p. 34, p. 36, p. 49, p. 54.
• Anales de la Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. Madrid: La Sociedad, url p. 156, p. 156, p. 181, p. 181, p. 212, p. 212, p. 90, p. 90.
• Anatomical and zoological researches: comprising an account of the zoological results of the two expeditions to western Yunnan in 1868 and 1875; and a monograph of the two cetacean genera, Platanista 1 1878 London, B. Quaritch, 1878. url p. 688.
• Austral avian record; a scientific journal devoted primarily to the study of the Australian avifauna. London: Witherby. url p. 186, p. 194, p. 81.
• Biosphere Reserves, Compilation 4, October 1986: programme on man and the biosphere (MAB) IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre url p. 205, p. 209, p. 319, p. 326, p. 411, p. 72.
• Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa de Cie?ncias Naturais. Lisboa, Sociedade Portuguesa de Cie?ncias Naturais, 1908- url p. 183.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. url p. 19, p. 24, p. 30, p. 38, p. 506, p. 550, p. 554, p. 589, p. 7.
• Bulletin / Peabody Museum of Natural History. 1972 New Haven: Peabody Museum of Natural History, url p. 79, fig. 8.
• Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). London: BM(NH) url p. 207.
• Camallanata of animals and man and diseases caused by them = Kamallanaty zhivotnykh i cheloveka i vyzyvaemye ime zabolevaniya / V. M. Ivashkin, A. A. Sobolev, and L. A. Khromova; translated from Russian [by Hilary Hardin]. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 1977. url p. 253, p. 254, p. 258, p. 259.
• Catalogue of British Birds in the Collection of the British Museum / by G.R. Gray. London, 1863. url p. 147.
• Catalogue of British birds in the collection of the British Museum. London, Printed by order of the trustees, 1863. url .
• Check-list of North American birds. [Ithaca, N.Y.]1957. url p. 49, p. 669.
• Check-list of North American birds: the species of birds of North America from the Arctic through Panama, including the West Indies and Hawaiian Islands / prepared by the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Orni Lawrence, Kan.: American Ornithologists' Union, 1983. url p. 48, p. 800.
• Check-list of birds of the world. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931-1987. url p. 212, p. 213.
• Check-list of the species of fishes known from the Philippine Archipelago, Manila, Bureau of printing, 1910. url p. 165, p. 219, p. 728.
• Checklist of CITES Species CITES, WCMC url p. 143, p. 154, p. 173, p. 78, p. 96.
• Checklist of CITES Species: a reference to the appendices to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES url p. 118, p. 58.
• Checklist of birds listed in the CITES appendices and in EC Regulation 338/97 JNCC url p. 245, p. 283.
• Coastal Sensitivity Overview of the Strait of Malacca. Compiled for International Maritime Organisation (IMO) IMO url .
• Condition and doings of the Boston Society of Natural History as exhibited by the annual reports. Boston url p. 23.
• Directory of Wetlands of International Importance. IUCN url p. 202, p. 258, p. 260, p. 263, p. 264, p. 266, p. 268, p. 270, p. 272, p. 273, p. 275, p. 279, p. 282, p. 285, p. 286, p. 288, p. 362, p. 363, p. 366, p. 373, p. 375, p. 376, p. 383, p. 388, p. 389, p. 390, p. 395, p. 396, p. 397, p. 398, p. 45, p. 508, p. 512, p. 525, p. 529, p. 556, p. 558, p. 562, p. 563, p. 567, p. 569, p. 631, p. 633, p. 638, p. 73, p. 750, p. 755, p. 765.
• Exposure of marine birds to environmental pollutants / by Harry M. Ohlendorf, Robert W. Risebrough, Kees Vermeer. Washington: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1978. url .
• Fifty common birds of China, n.p., 192-? url .
• IUCN Directory of Afrotropical Protected Areas IUCN, UNEP url p. 1018, p. 193, p. 534.
• IUCN Directory of South Asian Protected Areas IUCN url p. 124, p. 15, p. 204, p. 223, p. 257, p. 285.
• Ibis. [London]Published for the British Ornithologists' Union by Academic Press. url p. 113, p. 15, p. 220, p. 221, p. 224, p. 27, p. 27, p. 297, p. 341, p. 37, p. 391, p. 478, p. 495, p. 499, p. 500, p. 531, p. 545, p. 707, p. 750.
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• Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.] url p. 115, p. 12, p. 29, p. 487.
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• Protected Landscapes: experience around the world. Prepared for the International Symposium on Protected Landscapes, Grange-over-Sands, England 5-10 October 1987 IUCN url p. 126, p. 90.
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• Special scientific report--wildlife / U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, D.C.: The Service, 1949- url p. 11, p. 149, p. 331, p. 333, p. 334, p. 587, p. 61, p. 626, p. 649, p. 89, p. 96.
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Notes

Contributors

• BirdLife International 2009. Egretta garzetta. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 31January2012.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 9, 2012.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 26, 2007:

• Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Seabirds of the Southern and South Indian Ocean
• Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Bishop Museum Natural History Specimen Data
• Biologiezentrum der Oberoesterreichischen Landesmuseen, Biologiezentrum Linz
• Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Birds
• European Environment Agency, EUNIS
• GBIF-Spain, Museu de Ciències Naturals, Zoologia, Barcelona: MCNC-Cord
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, Bay of Fundy Species List
• OZCAM
• Provider, Online Zoological Collections of Australian Museums
• Senckenberg, Collection Aves
• The Danish Biodiversity Information Facility, Western Palearctic migrants in continental Africa
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
• , Bird specimens
• Upper Silesian Museum, Bytom, Upper Silesian Museum, Bird Observations

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 8819
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-174816
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 3027485
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 174816
• IUCN ID: 206610
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 179879

Footnotes

1. Standard Deviation = 468.610 based on 2,685 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
2. BirdLife International 2009. Egretta garzetta. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 31 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.