Great Egret

Description:

Large, white shorebird. This bird use to be over exploited due to the hat industry where hunters would take these birds by the thousands from their breeding grounds just for the plumes. These plumes were used as fashion statements and quickly became outlawed and protected under the Migratory Bird Act. This is a mother feeding her two large, but still hungry young. An interesting fact about egrets is though they nest above the water and hunt from the waters edge, these birds can not swim.