Widescreen view of a Great egret fishing in Bundula, Sri Lanka

The great egret also known as common egret, large egret or great white heron, is a large, widely distributed egret. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, in southern Europe it is rather localized. In North America it is more widely distributed, and it is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.