... white! The little blue is slightly taller than the snowy egret, but that can be hard to tell in the field. The best field mark for the immature little blue is its grayish-green bill – it isn’t black like the snowy egret’s or yellow like the great egret’s. The little blue hunts by stalking its prey; it eats fish, frogs, crustaceans, small rodents and insects. The last white wader is the white ibis (EYE-biss). It stands about two feet tall but is often bent
White Ibis - Photo by Coleman Davis
Great Egret - Photo by Anne Blythe forward as it probes wet soil for invertebrates. Its key field mark is its long, down-curved, orangered bill. Now that you know the
difference, take a drive along the Mattamuskeet Refuge Entrance Road where you can practice your white wader identification skills year round.