LITTLE EGRET
Egretta garzetta

iNgekle (Zulu) Kleinwit reier (Afrikaans)

HABITAT
A common, normally, resident egret on the shores of inland and marine waters in KwaZulu-Natal.

TYPE
A smallish, slender all white egret with black bill and legs with bright yellow feet. The eyes are yellow going orange red when breeding.

BREEDING
Little Egrets nest between October and January in KwaZulu-Natal building a platform of sticks or reeds in trees, bushes or reedbeds, sometimes on rocks or on cliffs. They are colonial breeders sometimes in mixed heronries. They lay from two to six pale greenish blue eggs.

FOOD
The food consists of small fish, frogs, insects, crustaceans, molluscs and small lizards. They are usually solitary feeders but may gather in numbers at a good food source. They can be very active in pursuit of prey, twisting and turning and darting, or stand very still waiting for prey to come close. They may shuffle their foot in muddy bottoms to stir up prey.

STATUS
This is a fairly common resident though there is some local movement.