First for Wales: Great Whites breed on Anglesey

Egrets' eye view: a drone was used to confirm the nests, to avoid disturbance from the ground (RSPB Cymru)

​Exciting news from Cors Ddyga, the wetland restored in the Cefni Valley over the last quarter century, where RSPB Cymru has announced that four Great White Egrets have fledged from two nests this summer. They are the first ever proven to breed in Wales, 13 years after the species first nested in the UK; more than 100 breeding pairs now breed in England.

One of the Cors Ddyga mums hatched in Somerset: its leg ring shows it was a chick at Shapwick Heath in April 2022 and a DNA test from a stray feather that it is a female. She visited several sites in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in her first summer, then turned up at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands in July 2023, but wasn’t reported again until a sharp-eyed birder at Cors Ddyga read the ABM on its red ring.

Great White Egrets are the larger cousin of the Little Egret, which has become a familiar sight in North Wales in the last two decades. Great Whites are a similar size to Grey Herons, standing at a metre tall, with a wingspan more than half as wide again. Great White Egrets have a bright yellow bill for much of the year, but this turns black temporarily when adults are in breeding condition.

Great White Egret (Bob Garrett)

For Great White Egrets, this is the latest step in their expansion across Europe, initially benefiting from effective legal protection after their plumes were targeted for the fashion trade until early last century. Wetland restoration and the warming climate have also powered the recovery, the Egrets benefiting from habitat created across Britain since the 1990s for Bitterns, which now breed at several sites on Anglesey. It’s thought that Great Whites have adapted their diet, able to exploit different sources of food as they spread west and north.

As well as being the first proven in Wales, these are also among the most northern Great White Egret nests in Britain. The Rare Breeding Birds Panel, which documents all records of UK species that have fewer than 2000 pairs, shows that RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands, just over the Flintshire border, was the most northerly until the first pair bred at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg in Scotland in 2024, representing a huge leap in range.
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It will be fascinating to see what happens next. The Somerset Levels accounts for more than three-quarters of the UK population, having responded to large-scale habitat restoration in the county. Birders will be watching to see whether the youngsters stay in the Cefni Valley and this becomes the foundation of a new population in North Wales.