What is British little egrets’ favourite habitat?

This video says about itself:

BTO Bird ID – Little Egret and Great White Egret

12 March 2013

25 years ago the sighting of any White Heron in the UK would have been greeted with excitement. While Little Egret is now relatively common, it can sometimes be confused at distance with a much rarer visitor – Great White Egret. This video also helps separate GW Egret from ‘white’ or leucistic Grey Herons.

From Hydrobiologia review, June 2014:

Do birds of a feather flock together?

Comparing habitat preferences of piscivorous waterbirds in a lowland river catchment

Kevin A. Wood, Richard A. Stillman

Abstract

Waterbirds can move into and exploit new areas of suitable habitat outside of their native range. One such example is the little egret (Egretta garzetta), a piscivorous bird which has colonised southern Britain within the last 30 years. Yet, habitat use by little egrets within Britain, and how such patterns of habitat exploitation compare with native piscivores, remains unknown. We examine overlap in habitat preferences within a river catchment between the little egret and two native species, the grey heron (Ardea cinerea) and great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).

All species showed strong preferences for river habitat in all seasons, with other habitat types used as auxiliary feeding areas. Seasonal use of multiple habitat types is consistent with egret habitat use within its native range. We found strong egret preference for aquatic habitats, in particular freshwaters, compared with pasture and arable agricultural habitat. Egrets showed greater shared habitat preferences with herons, the native species to which egrets are most morphologically and functionally similar. This is the first study to quantify little egret habitat preferences outside of its native range.

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