Bird
Great Egret
Ardea alba
Passes through West Virginia on migration. Found in all 55 counties, across 5 habitats.
- Here
- On migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 55 counties
- Habitats
- 5

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- On migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 55 counties
- Habitats
- 5
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in West Virginia 5
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
Streams, rivers and their banks
Flowing water and its banks, bars and rocky shoals.
Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.
Other habitats in its models (111)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in West Virginia.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Open Water (Brackish/Salt) Summer and winter.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter.
- Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Summer and winter.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter.
- South Florida Hardwood Hammock Summer.
- Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Summer and winter.
- East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Mississippi Delta Maritime Forest Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Maritime Forest Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer and winter.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Bay/Gum Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
- Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Tidal Marsh Systems Summer and winter.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- South Florida Mangrove Swamp Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
- South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
- Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland Summer and winter.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Bog and Fen Summer and winter.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Summer and winter.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- South Florida Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Large Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
- Tamaulipan Riparian Systems Summer.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Small Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Red River Large Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Summer and winter.
- Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South Florida Pine Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- Central Atlantic Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer and winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Pine Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods Winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Summer and winter.
- North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Summer and winter.
- The model applies distance limits to open and flowing water while retaining wet vegetation without that interior limit.
Seasons in West Virginia
- Migratory: does not nest here, in all 55 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 443
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in West Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Royal FernOsmunda spectabilis
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Water SmartweedPersicaria amphibia
- Arrowleaf TearthumbPersicaria sagittata
- American SycamorePlatanus occidentalis
- Hornleaf RiverweedPodostemum ceratophyllum
- Smooth AzaleaRhododendron arborescens
- Virginia Sida; Virginia Mallow; Virginia FanpetalsRipariosida hermaphrodita
- Cutleaf ConeflowerRudbeckia laciniata
- Coastal Plain WillowSalix caroliniana
- Black WillowSalix nigra
- Lizard's-tailSaururus cernuus
- Little BluestemSchizachyrium scoparium
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Wrinkle-leaf GoldenrodSolidago rugosa
- Sticky GoldenrodSolidago simplex var. racemosa
- Yellow IndiangrassSorghastrum nutans
- Virginia SpiraeaSpiraea virginiana
- Poison-ivyToxicodendron radicans
- Eastern GamagrassTripsacum dactyloides
- Eastern HemlockTsuga canadensis
- Riverbank GrapeVitis riparia
- Sand GrapeVitis rupestris
- YellowrootXanthorhiza simplicissima
Wildlife 202
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in West Virginia. Not sighting records.
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American CootFulica americana
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Cliff SwallowPetrochelidon pyrrhonota
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Double-crested CormorantPhalacrocorax auritus
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Hooded MerganserLophodytes cucullatus
- MallardAnas platyrhynchos
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Ring-necked DuckAythya collaris
- Swamp SparrowMelospiza georgiana
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- Wood DuckAix sponsa
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- Acadian FlycatcherEmpidonax virescens
- Alder FlycatcherEmpidonax alnorum
- American GoldfinchCarduelis tristis
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Great Egret Elevation from 0 m. Slow streams only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)











































