Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Great Egret FAMILY - Ardeidae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Ardea alba SYNONYMS - Casmerodius alba (Linnaeus) REFERENCES - 2 and 1 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Resident, species present all year. 44 Winter visitor - migrant. 44 Apparently secure in Belize 43 Common: high density, likely to be seen in many places 43 Resident, species present all year. 3 U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty 36 District Reference Belize 4 Cayo 5 Corozal 13 Orange Walk 5 Stann Creek 14 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Coastal zone, not including cayes. 28 Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve Dry season 13 Shipstern Nature Reserve Sighting Dry season 17 Shipstern Nature Reserve 31 Rio Bravo Conservation Area Sighting Dry season 20 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 23 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 37 Gallon Jug 22 Gallon Jug 5 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Dry season 21 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Permanent 19 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Wet season 24 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Permanent 26 Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (Privat Wet season 15 Half Moon Caye Natural Monument 32 Burdon Canal Nature Reserve Sighting Wet season 9 Community Baboon Sanctuary Dry season 25 Community Baboon Sanctuary 30 Lamanai Archaeological Reserve 16 Altun Ha Archaeological Reserve 39 Caracol Archaeological Reserve Dry season 11 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) Dry season 12 Mussel Creek Drainage (Proposed) Dry season 4 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop 20 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop 27 Private land, see comments Collected as voucher 41 Private land, see comments Sighting Dry season 10 Private land, see comments Sighting Wet season 18 Private land, see comments Sighting Wet season 31 Private land, see comments Sighting 31 Private land, see comments 8 Private land, see comments Dry season 14 Private land, see comments 27 Private land, see comments 31 Government land Collected as voucher 40 Government land 27 Government land 31 Ambergris Cay 24 Cayes, other; see comments 6 Turneffe Reef 29 Monkey River Special Development Area 35 Caye Caulker 7 Hydrologic Association Reference New River Lagoon 37 Belize River 30 Cox's Lagoon 4 Belize River 8 Macal River 10 Mussel Creek 12 Sittee River 14 Sibun River 15 New River 16 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 31 1-200 m 37 1-200 m 38 1-200 m 39 1-200 m 40 1-200 m 41 201-400 m 31 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 16 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 24 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 00' to 88 15' 26 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 39 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 45' to 89 00' 7 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 22 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 38 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 5 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 38 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 20 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 25 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 00' to 88 10' 27 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 30 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 37 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 27 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 00' to 88 30' 38 16 45' to 17 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 41 18 15' to 18 30'; 88 00' to 88 15' 5 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 7 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 00' to 88 10' 8 18 00' to 18 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 38 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 15' to 88 30' 4 16 10' to 16 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 27 18 00' to 18 15'; 88 15' to 88 30' 9 17 00' to 17 15'; 87 30' to 87 45' 9 17 15' to 17 30'; 87 45' to 88 00' 10 17 52'35" to 18 11'30"; 87 49' to 88 03' 38 17 45' to 18 00'; 89 00' to 89 15' 5 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 31 33 38 5 20 40 11 14 31 33 37 31 33 17 31 35 6 31 33 32 29 13 24 23 31 33 18 31 33 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 40 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 38 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 31 Subtropical moist 41 Subtropical moist 39 Subtropical moist 38 Subtropical moist 37 Subtropical moist 31 Subtropical moist 30 Marine 32 General Distribution Comments 44* Common northern semideciduous moist forest. Common southern moist-wet evergreen broadleaf forests. Uncommon Mtn. Pine Ridge/savannas on poor soil. Common coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. Common mangroves lowlands & coastal beaches. Common cayes inc. Ambergris. 27* Airport Camp; Big Falls Rice Farm 18* Gold Button Ranch 14* Possum Point Biological Station 10* Sighted at or within 5 mile radius of Chaa Creek Cottages 8* Banana Bank Ranch 6* Following Cayes; Bird, Bennie's Lagoon, Shipstern Lagoon, Port Honduras Islands, Snake Cayes, New River Lagoon. 3* Permanent resident, common northern and southern hardwood forests, coastal savannas, mangroves and beaches along the coast of the mainland; uncommon in cays, including Ambergris Caye. References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1995 Fortieth Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 112(3):819. 3 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 4 Hunt, H. R., J. Tamarack. 1992. Cox Lagoon Crocodile Preserve. Unpub. report. pp.4-8 5 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 6 McRae, E., 1994. The Birds of Belize's Coastal Zone: Species, Distribution, Current Status, Threats to Their Well-being, and Potential Measures to Reduce Their impact. Unpublished report. 7 McRae, E. 1993. Preliminary Check-list - Birds of Caye Caulker. 8 Duncan, M., W. Duncan. 1993. Banana Bank, Nov. 1, Checklist provided in lit. 9 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1993. Preliminary Avian Survey of Burdon Canal Nature Reserve. Unpublished report for the Forest Department 10 Carnegie Ornithological Group and Mass Audubon Ornithological Group, compilers. 1993. Chaa Creek Bird List. Unpublished list. 11 Miller, B. W., C. M. Miller. 1994, Birds of Caracol, 1988 - 1993. in prep. 12 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1987. Conservation of a Critical Marsh and Lowland habitat, Mussel Creek drainage system, Belize, C.A. Report to NYZS/Wildlife Conservation Society. 13 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. Avian Surveys: Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve 1-10 March. Unpublished Report to the Forestry Dept. 14 Anon. 1993. Bird Checklist for Possum Point Biological Station, Sittee River, Belize 15 Anon. 1994. Monkey Bay Checklist of Birds. Unpublished list. 16 Noble, B., B. Stewart, J. Dillon. 1994. Lamanai Bird List, Mid-October 1993 - 16 March 1994. 17 Meerman, J. 1993. Checklist of the Birds of the Shipstern Nature Reserve, Occasional Papers of the Belize Natural History Society. 2(10). pp. 71-81. 18 Platt, S. 1993. Wildlife Survey of Gold Button Ranch, Belize. Unpublished report. 19 McDuffie, P. 1993. Personal Bird List for Belize: September 1, 1989 - December 15, 1993. Unpublished list. 20 Russell, S. M. 1964. A Distributional Study of the Birds of British Honduras. Ornithological Monographs No. 1, A.O.U. 21 Wood, D. S., R. C. Leberman. 1987. Results of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Expeditions to Belize. III. Distributional Notes on the Birds of Belize. Annals Carnegie Museum. 56(6):137-160. 22 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. A working checklist of the birds of Gallon Jug. Unpublished list. 23 Anon. 1994 (August). Working Checklist, Birds of Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area. Unpublished list. 24 Forsythe, D. 1994. Unpublished Belize Trip list June 18-21. 25 O'Connell, S. 1987. in Horwich, R. H. and J. Lyon. The Community Baboon Sanctuary, A Guide Book. Orangu-tan Press, Gays Mills, WI. pp. 113. 26 Counsell, D.J.R., B. Etheridge. 1986. RAFOS Expedition to Belize. Unpub- lished report. 27 Hallchurch, T.T., compiler. 1982. Exercise King Vulture Belize 23 Feb.- 16 March. Unpub. report for the British Army Bird Watching Society. 28 Jenkins, P. G. 1982. The Royal Air Force Ornithological Society Belize Expedition, 1981. 80.pp Unpublished report. 29 Platt, S. G. 1994. Checklist of Fauna Recorded During Crocodile Surveys of Turneffe Atoll. Unpub. checklist. 30 James, D., J. Bider. 1993. Bird List: Community Baboon Sanctuary, 1989- 1993 (derived from banding & census data, field notes). Unpublished data 31 Quigley, H. B., B. W. Miller, C. M. Miller. 1995. Mammal Survey, Shipstern Nature Reserve, April 4-13, 1995. Unpublished report for ITCF. 32 Miller, C. M., B. W. Miller. 1995. Avian Surveys: Half Moon Caye Natural Monument. Unpublished report for Belize Audubon Society. 33 Robbins, Chandler. 1996. U.S.F.& Wildlife Service Wintering Bird Surveys for Belize. Unpublished data provided by C. Robbins. 34 Meerman, J., T. Boomsma. 1995. False Sittee Point, Stann Creek District, Belize. Biological and Physical Survey 1995. p. 19. 35 Meerman, J.C. ed. 1995. Monkey River Special Development Area Stann Creek District, Belize. Belize Tropical Forest Studies Publication #5. Appendix: Bird List. Unpublished Technical report for B.E.S.T. 36 Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B., Part 10.13: List of Migratory Birds. U.S. Government Printing Office: 1985 0-488-794. (Lists all species of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-711). 37 Vallely, A. C., A. A. Whitman. 1996. The birds of Hill Bank, northern Belize. Unpublished report for Programme for Belize. 38 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 39 ROM. 1997. Royal Ontario Museum, Division of Birds, Holdings of Belize specimens through Jan. 1, 1997. Provided by Brad Millen. 40 Panza, R. 1997. Carnegie Museum, Division of Birds, Holdings of Belize specimens through Jun. 1, 1997. 41 Hinshaw, J. 1997. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology bird holdings through Jun. 1, 1997. 42 Howell, S. N. G., S. Webb. 1995. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. New York. Oxford University Press. 43 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 44 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98