23.08.2020 Animal of the week: Little Egret

Hi everyone,

This week's animal is the Little Egret. This is a less well-known bird, so we are excited to share it with you!

Habitat

Little Egrets are a species of small heron and live in many different places across the world such as Africa, Australia, southern Asia, Europe and the UK. Like herons, Little Egrets live in open spaces that have a lake or river running through them. Some of the ones that live in Europe migrate to Africa.

Diet

Because it is an aquatic bird, the Little Egret feeds on a range of fish, amphibians, small reptiles and birds, insects and worms. They aren't fussy! Some Little Egrets have made use of humans and have been known to throw bread into the water to attract fish for it to eat.

Dangers

Little Egrets are classed as Least Concern, so their numbers aren't declining like many other amazing birds are at the moment.

That's all for this week, we hope you have learnt some new facts!

Images:

1: This image is owned by Francesco Ungaro on pexels.com.

2: This image is owned by Rajukhan Pathan on pexels.com.

Sources:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/little-egret/

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/herons-egrets-spoonbill-and-crane/little-egret

Comments

HB01/09/2020, 14:32
Hi there. We’re glad you’ve featured the Little Egret. It used to be in serious decline in the UK but thanks to some caring conservation work on marshlands, estuaries and inlets they are returning and more common thankful. It just shows what can be done to reverse the fortunes of species in decline.
Well done for listing these delicate water birds.

RB
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