Great Egret

The great egret is a large, widely distributed egret, found across most tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. Four subspecies occur in Asia, Africa, the Americas and southern Europe, and it has recently been spreading into more northern parts of Europe. It builds tree nests in colonies close to water (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is not in the genus Egretta with the typical egrets but is placed in Ardea with the great herons. The Old World birds are often called great white egrets, and the smallest subspecies, modesta, is from Asia and Australasia.