Great egretSilberreiher Egretta alba
Family: Herons, egrets, and bitterns
A tall, all-white heron with a long, kinked neck, black legs and a bill that is yellow in winter and black in the breeding season. Great egrets stalk slowly through shallow water and grazed meadows, striking suddenly at fish, frogs and voles. Once a rarity, they now spend the winter in large numbers in Germany and have begun to breed in the north-east.