Great Egret (Ardea alba)
(aka Great White Egret, Common Egret, Egretta alba, Casmerodius albus. See foot of page for references)
Great Egret, Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Sept 2000 - click on image for a larger view Brazil

There are 4 sub-species of the Great Egret. C. albus albus, the main Old World sub-species differs from C. albus egretta, the New World sub-species, as shown in these photos, in having a dark bill during the breeding season as opposed to a yellow bill with a dark tip. Outside the breeding season the bill is all yellow as seen in the second photo. Another feature of the breeding season is the ornamental plumes.

Great Egret, Parati, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 2002 - click on image for a larger view It was these plumes that led this bird close to extinction just before the First World War. Fashion demanded that ladies' hats be festooned with feathers of many kinds but the most coveted were those from the Great Egret, the Snowy Egret, the Little Egret and the White-necked Heron. It took 300 Great Egrets to produce 1 kilo of plumes and the plumes sold for twice the value of the same weight as gold.

In Paris about 10,000 people were employed in this trade. In London, one firm alone used annually the plumes of over 200,000 slaughtered Great Egrets.
Great Egret, Thaimaçu, Pará, Brazil, April 2003 - click on image for a larger view As if this wasn't bad enough, remember that the plumes are only on the bird during the breeding season, so how many eggs and chicks were left abandoned by the ladies of fashion in Europe and North America.

There are illustrations in HBW, Volume 1, pages 395 and 408 and some great photos at the Berkeley Digital Library and the University of Michigan.

Great Egret, Parati, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 2002 - click on image for a larger view References include:
Payne, R.B. & C.J. Risley (1976) Systematics and evolutionary relationships among the herons (Ardeidae). Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan 150:1-115
Sheldon, F.H. (1987) Phylogeny of herons estimated from DNA-DNA hybridization data. Auk 104(1):97-108.
Great Egret, Cassino, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, August 2004 - click on image for a larger view
Great Egret, Taim, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, August 2004 - click on image for a larger view
Great Egret on the mangroves, Ilha de Marajó, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click on image for a larger view
Great Egret, Ilha de Marajó, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click on image for a larger view
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