The Story
The shot
I photographed this Great Egret (Ardea alba) near the Mai Po Marshes in the northwest New Territories of Hong Kong, China on March 22, 2018. It lives across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world and nests in trees, in colonies close to water. Around the end of the 19th century great egrets were killed in large numbers for the plumes used on hats, and conservation measures have since let their numbers recover. The great egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. Mai Po lies within the Inner Deep Bay Ramsar site, listed as a Wetland of International Importance in 1995.
I took this with a Pentax K-1 and the HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, −1 EV. Deep Bay faces pollution and development pressure, so protected wetlands like Mai Po matter for the birds that depend on it.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Great Egret (Ardea alba) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List
