Ontario and New York-banded Great Egrets wintering in the Caribbean—Can you find them?
A large all-white bird with black legs and a yellow bill, the Great Egret (Ardea alba) is a common egret found throughout the Caribbean and many other parts of the world, mainly in wetland habitats. Currently, scientists are working to discover this species’ migration patterns. To learn where Great Egrets breeding in the northern US and Canada are migrating to, Dr. Chip Weseloh, Susan Elbin, and colleagues have been banding and individually marking young flightless Great Egrets from the Great Lakes (Ontario, Canada, and New York, USA) and New York Harbour, USA, since 2001 with over 2,000 egrets marked to date. Each bird is marked with unique tags or bands to allow for field identification. In the Caribbean, tagged birds have been seen and reported to date from Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and the Lesser Antilles.
The banding office has also provided records of banded Great Egrets reported from Caribbean countries: 78 banded egrets were encountered in the Caribbean between 1935 and 2010. They were encountered in Cuba (40), Dominican Republic (16), Lesser Antilles (9), Jamaica and Cayman Islands (5), and Bahamas and Puerto Rico (4 each). Nearly 70% of these birds came from the U.S. states of Mississippi, New Jersey, Virginia, and Ohio. This combination of banding records and sightings of tagged birds suggests the Caribbean is an important destination for Great Egrets breeding in the US and Canada.
It is likely, however, that there are many tagged Great Egrets wintering in the Caribbean that have not yet been reported. Dr. Weseloh and eBird Caribbean need your help in finding them. While birding in the Caribbean this fall, winter, or spring, watch for tagged Great Egrets. If you see one, carefully record the color of any leg bands or wing tags as well as the letter number combinations (photographs are great). Markings include red leg bands with white characters or wing tags in orange, green, yellow, or blue with black characters (see photos). Yellow tags are marked with letter-number-number characters (e.g. C15), while the coloured leg-bands and the other coloured wing-tags are marked with number-number-letter characters (e.g. 98H, 27K, etc). When entering your eBird Caribbean checklist, please put this information in the species comments section. Then send a separate email to the following people giving the type and colour of the markers, the date and location where seen, and the name of the observer as follows:
- For yellow wing-tags – report to Dr. Susan Elbin (selbin@nycaudubon)
- For all others – report to Dr. Chip Weseloh (chip.weseloh@ec.gc.ca)
Great Egret with an orange wing tag that reads 10E. This bird was banded at the Great Lakes. Photo by Alan Wormington.
This Great Egret has a blue wing tag 93F. This bird was also banded at the Great Lakes. Photo by Dan MacNeal.
For the next phase of his study, Dr. Weseloh would like to band and tag young flightless Great Egrets in various Caribbean countries to see where they disperse to and where they spend the winter. Currently, movement patterns of Great Egrets breeding in the Caribbean are completely unknown and tagging young egrets from breeding colonies will allow him to discover where they go. In order to do this, he needs to know where Great Egrets breed in the Caribbean, specifically where their breeding colonies are.
eBird Caribbean is also collecting breeding information on birds in the Caribbean through the breeding code section on checklists. Nesting colonies of egrets and other waterbirds are of special conservation interest because waterbird colonies often contain species of conservation concern and breeding is easily disrupted by human disturbance or habitat destruction. By documenting the locations and species breeding at each colony, eBird Caribbean can provide valuable information for conservation planning, and help ensure more colonies are protected. However, eBird Caribbean’s database still has very little information about egret breeding colonies.
If you know of any egret or heron breeding colonies, please visit them and count the number of individuals and nests of each species. If possible, submit your sightings to eBird Caribbean using one of the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) options with the number of active nests in the comments section for each species. Colonies may not be active year round, so you may have to visit a colony more than once to see active breeding. Also, if you cannot view all the nests or birds at a colony, that is fine. Just report all the nests and individuals you can identify and see. Follow this link for more detailed instructions on reporting breeding birds to eBird Caribbean.
After entering your eBird Caribbean checklist, if the colony has any Great Egret nests, email Dr. Weseloh separately and send him the general location, country, and approximate number of breeding pairs or nests of Great Egrets (even very broad estimates are fine, such as 50-100 nests). Note: even if you have not entered an eBird Caribbean checklist, but have seen Great Egret nests recently, Dr. Weseloh would still appreciate it if you could email him as much information as you can.
Thank you for your help!
D.V. Chip Weseloh, Ph.D.
Canadian Wildlife Service (retired…but still active)
Toronto, Canada
chip.weseloh@ec.gc.ca
and eBird Caribbean
Special thanks to Alan Wormington and Dan MacNeal for use of the photographs.