The Great Egret, Ardea Alba is a large, usually white-colored egret, in the family of herons and egrets. Like other birds in the family, the Great Egret is tall, with a long wingspan and a long neck, that it uses to hunt for fish, frogs and other small aquatic creatures in wetlands. Despite being several feet tall and having a several foot wingspan, it is a lightly built bird, and only weighs a few pounds.
The most interesting thing to me about the Great Egret is the contrast between how large, beautiful and unique it looks, and how bog standard sighting it is. The Great Egret is not at all an endangered bird, and is in fact expanding in region and population. Great Egret habitat is found around the world, with the exception of the Arctic and Antarctic, the Sahara Desert and the open oceans of the world. And in areas that it inhabits, it is a common bird. If you live anywhere close to a river or lake in a temperate area, you can probably see a Great Egret.
Despite being a common bird, I still find it beautiful and impressive, and feel lucky every time I get to see one.