Great Egret / Grote Zilverreiger, Galin

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Foek Chin Joe	© Pieter Verheij	© Steven Wytema
© Ton Plug	French Guiana © Michel Giraud-Audine	French Guiana © Michel Giraud-Audine
Aruba © Greg Peterson	Florida © Jean-Louis Rousselle	© Jean-Louis Rousselle

The Common Egret or Great Egret is a tall, totally white heron (almost a meter in length), that hunts for food (mostly fish) in groups as well as solitaryly. It is not as numerous as the snowy egret, but big groups can be encountered along the coast. They prefer flooded fields and swamps. In the interior they hunt alone along rivers. They nest in colonies in trees, with many nests in one tree. A hundred years ago they were hunted for their beautiful ornamental feathers.
The first photo was made by Foek Chin Joe, of a Great Egret at Ma retraite in August 2008. It shows its breeding plumage with some ornamental feathers. The second one was made by Pieter Verheij in February 2006. Both pictures were made in Suriname. Then a picture of a Great egret with mud on its bill, made by Steven Wytema along the coast of Suriname. In French Guiana Michel Giraud-Audine saw a bird with fish in May 2013 and the second beautiful one near Wayabo in October 2015. And the last one was made by Greg Peterson on Aruba in 2006.

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Ardea alba
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ardeidae, 20 in Suriname
Dutch:	Grote Zilverreiger, Galin
English:	Great Egret
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Galin, Leger
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Garza blanca real
Portugese (Brazil):	Garça branca grande
Arowak:	Alierato anola
Carib:	Akalaw
French:	Grande aigrette

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 551 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 16 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 551 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 16 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).