Egretta eulophotes

The body is slender and long, with a long beak, neck and legs. The body feathers are white, and the plumage of males and females is similar. The iris is pale yellow and the legs are black. Juveniles do not have slender ornamental feathers, the beak is brown but the base is yellow, and the skin of the legs and eyes is yellow-green. In the breeding season, there are slender ornamental feathers: the crown feathers at the back of the head are long and dense, the shoulder feathers extend to the tail but the ends are straight, and the lower neck ornamental feathers are long and pointed, covering the chest; the beak is yellow, the legs are yellow, the skin of the breeding face is blue, the iris is yellow-brown, the beak is black, the base is yellow, and the feet are yellow-green to blue-green.

In the past, it was widely distributed, but now it is rare. It breeds on the coastal islands of Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong and Jiangsu. In the past, it was recorded to breed on Hainan Island, but breeding in Hong Kong stopped in 1980. The reason for the decline in numbers is that people collected its filamentous feathers at the end of the last century, but the population has not yet fully recovered. There are records of stray birds seen along the eastern coast as far as Hebei and Liaoning. It is seen in the Xisha Islands during migration.
Globally endangered. It breeds on the coastal islands of western North Korea and some islands in eastern China and Liaodong Peninsula. It mainly winters in the Philippines, and rarely in Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
Abroad, it is distributed in Russia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Myanmar, and Thailand. The main wintering places are Palawan in the Philippines, Sarawak in Malaysia, and Jambi and South Sumatra in Indonesia.
In China, i

The Chinese Egret is a medium-sized wading bird with no subspecies.

The Chinese Egret has the habit of nesting in groups, repairing old nests, and breeding in mixed groups with pond herons, night herons, and cattle egrets. It can fly to the breeding grounds in late April and lay eggs in May, with 2-5 eggs per nest. The incubation period is 24-26 days, the brooding period is 35-40 days, and it migrates south in October to hibernate. It migrates in spring and autumn in April and November every year. It mainly feeds on various small fish, and also eats animal food such as shrimp, crabs, tadpoles and aquatic insects. It usually walks by the river, salt fields or paddy fields while pecking. Its long beak, long neck and long legs are very convenient for preying on animals in the water. When hunting, it gently wades forward, its eyes constantly looking at the small animals moving in the water, and then suddenly pecks the water with its long beak, accurately pecking the food into its mouth. Sometimes it often stands by the water, waiting for an opportunity to prey on passing fish.

The call of the yellow-billed egret: usually silent, but it makes a low-pitched croaking sound when frightened.

During the breeding period from May to July every year, the various peculiar behaviors of the yellow-billed egret are even more interesting. Generally, adult male egrets have their own territory, which is sacred and inviolable. When a female egret intrudes into its territory, the male egret will alertly stretch out its crown feathers, hooded feathers and chest feathers to intimidate, and at this time, the female egret must wait patiently. When the male egret retracts its hooded feathers to indicate that it agrees with the female egret to stay at the edge of its territory, the love between them is considered to have begun. At first, the two sides look at each other silently, touch their beaks, and then take off together, soaring in the air for a long time. After flying back to the branches or rocks, they chase each other, and sometimes dance relative to each other to express their love and trust for each other. After the female egret lays eggs, the male and female birds take turns to guard the eggs and never allow other birds to enter their territory.

In 2003, the breeding ecology of the yellow-billed egret in Xingrentuo, Shicheng Township, Liaoning Province was observed. A total of 114 breeding nests were found. The breeding population began to migrate in mid-April, and the breeding time was concentrated in mid-May. 89% of the nests laid eggs between May 4 and July 2, and the average egg-laying period was May 16 (N=114). The nests were mainly built at the bottom of the bushes, with 54 nests supported by the roots of the bushes and the slope; 26 nests were supported by protruding rocks and the slope; there were 13 suspended nests supported by shrub branches, and this type of nest was 40±24 cm above the ground; there were 16 ground nests, and another 3 nests were built on protruding rocks. Among the 114 nests observed, 5 nests (4.4%) had 2 eggs, 23 nests (20.2%) had 3 eggs, 81 nests (71.1%) had 4 eggs, 5 nests (4.4) had 5 eggs, and one nest had 7 eggs; the average clutch size was 3.8±0.7 eggs per pair, and the typical clutch size was 4. The average incubation period, i.e., the time from the first egg laid to the hatching of the last egg, was 28.6±1.3d (25-31) N=42. There was a significant negative correlation between clutch size and egg-laying period (rs-0.251, P<0.01, n=114), and the late-breeding pairs had relatively lower egg-laying amounts. The incubation time of eggs of different orders was significantly different, with an egg-laying interval of 2.Of0.6d (1-5, N=136), and the hatching intervals of eggs of adjacent orders were significantly different. The chicks start to move around the nest at 24 days old, can fly short distances and leave the nest around 30 days old, and live independently around 45 days old. The nesting success rate is 75%, and the number of chicks surviving in 25 nests is 2.2 per nest. The incubation behavior of the yellow-billed egret is a typical asynchronous incubation mode, and the nesting behavior has adapted to the local islandized exposed habitat. The interference of photographers is the main reason affecting the breeding success of the yellow-billed egret population.

The reasons for the rapid decline of yellow-billed egrets around the world are: first, the development of coastal tidal flat aquaculture and human development and utilization of natural resources, especially the excessive reclamation of breeding grounds and wetlands and coastal development of wintering grounds, which have caused serious damage to the habitat of yellow-billed egrets; second, during the breeding and egg-laying season of yellow-billed egrets, fishermen and foreign tourists often go to the island for sightseeing and pick up bird eggs, making it impossible for yellow-billed egrets to complete their breeding activities; third, at the end of the 19th century, people collected and sold the silky feathers of yellow-billed egrets, and the large-scale hunting caused the number of yellow-billed egrets to decrease sharply, and they have not recovered to this day.

CITES endangered category: Not listed, effective date: 1997

IUCN endangered category: Endangered, effective date: 1996

IUCN endangered category: VU C1, effective date: 2003 [8] 

China Red Data List of Endangered Animals: Endangered, effective date: 1996

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List":

February 5, 2021 version: Level 1.

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