How to differentiate between Little Egret and Great Egret

Learn how to tell the difference between little egrets, medium egrets, and great egrets by observing their appearance, body size, and ecological habits. The following is a detailed introduction to these three types of egrets and how to distinguish them:

Great Egret

Physical characteristics:

It has pure white feathers, black legs and a yellow bill.

It has an extremely long neck, which is particularly conspicuous.

Body type:

Larger, significantly larger in size.

Ecological habits:

It likes to live in lakes, ponds, swamps, and coastal beaches.

Intermediate Egret

Physical characteristics:

The body size is between the great egret and the little egret. Its feathers are pure white and its bill and legs are black.

Body type:

It is medium-sized and has a small neck, slightly smaller than the Great Egret.

Ecological habits:

It likes to live in swamps, rice fields and shallow lakes.

Little Egret

Physical characteristics:

Smaller in size, it also has white feathers, black legs, and a yellow bill.

Body type:

It is the smallest of these three species of egret.

Ecological habits:

It likes to live in shallow water and will quickly walk in the water to catch food when foraging.

Distinguishing method

Size: The Great Egret is the largest, the Little Egret is the smallest, and the Medium Egret is in between.

Color Characteristics: When looking at plumage color, you can notice that great egrets generally have brighter white plumage, while little and medium egrets have relatively lighter plumage.

Neck length: The great egret has an extremely long neck, followed by the medium egret, and the little egret has a shorter neck.

Ecological habits: Observing their habitat, feeding habits and activity range to make a preliminary judgment will help to identify them.

When observing these three types of egrets, comprehensive judgment based on multiple characteristics will help to more accurately distinguish between great egrets, medium egrets, and little egrets. Careful observation of their appearance, size, behavior, and habitat can help you better identify them.

animal tags： egret