In this family portrait, a stately adult Great Egret towers above its gawky chicks. Before they become independent, the young will look like adults, with a long stout S-curved neck and a relatively small head. Click on the images above for larger photo and caption H alf a century ago, in 1952, an unusual white heron landed onboard a ship off the coast of eastern Canada and expired there. When it was shown to experts on shore, the corpse was identified as that of a Great Egret. Great Egrets and Cattle Egrets do look different, but at some seasons the main differences involve size and shape.
Size can be hard to judge on a lone bird, so shape remains as the ultimate field mark.
The stubby bill and short legs of the bird on the Canadian ship should have served as clues that this bird was no Great Egret. Of course, describing a shape in words can be almost as hard as describing precise colors or sounds. But the Great Egret is a cut above most of the white egrets and herons on this continent. This one is full-bodied and statuesque, with long, relatively thick legs. Its neck looks both long and muscular, like the body of a python.