An egret is a long-legged bird that lives near water — a kind of heron, most often white, with a long neck and a long beak for fishing in shallow water. You see them standing still in rice fields, river mouths, and wetlands, then striking fast. In the breeding season many egrets grow long, fine plumes, and people once hunted them for those feathers. Though actually, not every egret is white, and the tidy picture of long white tail feathers is a little loose: the famous plumes sit more on the back than on the tail. If you picture a tall white heron in a paddy field, you have the right bird. Egret and aigrette (a spray of feathers worn as jewellery) are the same old word that later split in two.

白鷺、鷺鷥