page_title: List of birds of North Carolina
section_title: Herons, egrets, and bitterns
hierarchical_section_title: List of birds of North Carolina / Herons, egrets, and bitterns
caption_attribution_description: English: Great Egret with a fish
context_page_description: This list of birds of North Carolina includes species documented in the U.S. state of North Carolina and accepted by the North Carolina Bird Records Committee of the Carolina Bird Club. As of January 2019, there are 469 species and a species pair definitively included in the official list. Twelve additional species, one of which is identified only at the genus level, are on the list but classed as provisional. Between January 2019 and July 2020, four more species were reported to eBird. Of the resulting 486 species, 89 are rare anywhere in the state, 92 are rare in some part of the state or in a single season, six have been introduced to North America, and four are extinct.
  This list is presented in the taxonomic sequence of the Check-list of North and Middle American Birds, 7th edition through the 61st Supplement, published by the American Ornithological Society. Common and scientific names are also those of the Check-list, except that the common names of families are from the Clements taxonomy because the AOS list does not include them.
context_section_description: Order: Pelecaniformes   Family: Ardeidae
  The family Ardeidae contains the herons, egrets, and bitterns. Herons and egrets are medium to large wading birds with long necks and legs. Bitterns tend to be shorter necked and more secretive. Members of Ardeidae fly with their necks retracted, unlike other long-necked birds such as storks, ibises, and spoonbills. Thirteen species have been recorded in North Carolina.
  American bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus
  Least bittern, Ixobrychus exilis
  Great blue heron, Ardea herodias
  Great egret, Ardea alba
  Little egret, Egretta garzetta (R)
  Snowy egret, Egretta thula
  Little blue heron, Egretta caerulea
  Tricolored heron, Egretta tricolor
  Reddish egret, Egretta rufescens (RI)
  Cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis
  Green heron, Butorides virescens
  Black-crowned night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax
  Yellow-crowned night-heron, Nyctanassa violacea
caption: Great egret
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