# Great egret (*Ardea alba*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-egret  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The great egret (Ardea alba) is a bird in the family Ardeidae and the order Pelecaniformes, also called the Large egret, American egret, Great white heron, Great white egret and Western great egret. It is a small bird by our size classification, with an adult body mass of 871.3 g (812 to 935 g reported) and a wingspan of 1.44 m. The great egret is a carnivorous aquatic predator of wetland habitats that forages terrestrially and is partially migratory. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, not an IUCN threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 812 g – 935 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Wingspan | 1.44 m |
| Lifespan | 22.8 years |
| Diet | Aquatic predator |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 22.8 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | wetland |
| Egg incubation | 24.7 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 3.7 |
| Age at maturity | 20.9 months – 2 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1.5 |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Migration | Partial |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Pelecaniformes
- family: Ardeidae
- genus: Ardea
- species: *Ardea alba* Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms: *Ardea alba*, *Ardea alba*, *Ardea alpina*, *Ardea modesta modesta*, *Casmerodius albus*, *Casmerodius albus subsp. albus*, *Egretta alba*, *Egretta alba*, *Egretta alba*, *Egretta alba*, *Egretta alba*, *Egretta alba alba*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Australia

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the great egret?

The great egret is a bird in the family Ardeidae, order Pelecaniformes. Its scientific name is Ardea alba.

### How heavy is a great egret?

An adult Great egret has a body mass of 871.3 g, with reported values from 812 to 935 g. Its wingspan is 1.44 m.

### What does the great egret eat?

The great egret is a carnivorous aquatic predator. It lives in wetland habitats.

### Is the great egret endangered?

No. The great egret is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not an IUCN threatened category.

### How long does a great egret live?

The great egret lives up to 22.8 years according to our sources.

### How many eggs does the great egret lay?

The great egret lays 3.7 eggs per clutch and has 1.5 clutches per year. Incubation lasts 24.7 days.

### Which countries is the great egret recorded in?

Checklists record the great egret in Australia. Its geographic range covers 74.9 million km².

### Who named the great egret?

The great egret was named Ardea alba by Linnaeus, 1758.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Great egret (Ardea alba). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-egret