Egret has long legs, long neck, and long beak. It forages in shallow water, spearing small fish, invertebrates, and amphibians. It is not uncommon to see a lone tall bird in a field around Bakersfield, where it probably is feeding on large insects, lizards, and small rodents. Nesting occurs in communal rookeries in the tops of large shrubs or small trees near water.
Parents bring food to the young and regurgitate it directly into their mouths.
The bird's large plumes, which serve as mating advertisements, almost led to its undoing. Since it takes about 4 birds to provide an ounce of plumes, these sales were responsible for the death of 192,960 birds, and several times that number of eggs or young destroyed in the rookeries. Other herons, especially the smaller Snowy Egret, were equally devastated. The practice of using the feathers was staunchly defended by the millinery trade, which employed 1 out of 1,000 Americans in 1900. The Audubon Society headed the drive to stop the feather trade and adopted the Great Egret as the symbol of the bird preservation movement.