Ardea alba egretta Gmelin, 1789 - great egret in Florida, USA. (summer 2009)

Birds are small to large, warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered, bipedal vertebrates capable of powered flight (although some are secondarily flightless). Many scientists characterize birds as dinosaurs, but this is consequence of the physical structure of evolutionary diagrams. Birds aren’t dinosaurs. They’re birds. The logic & rationale that some use to justify statements such as “birds are dinosaurs” is the same logic & rationale that results in saying “vertebrates are echinoderms”. Well, no one says the latter. No one should say the former, either.

However, birds are evolutionarily derived from theropod dinosaurs. Birds first appeared in the Triassic or Jurassic, depending on which avian paleontologist you ask. They inhabit a wide variety of terrestrial and surface marine environments, and exhibit considerable variation in behaviors and diets.

The great egret is a large heron that is widely distributed in the New World and the Old World. It has a dark yellow bill, black legs, all-white plumage, and a long, serpentine neck. The great egret is a predator - principally a piscivore (fish eater).

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Pelecaniformes, Ardeidae

Locality: southern tip of Cayo Costa Island, southwestern Florida, USA

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