A Great White Egret (Ardea alba), ringed as a chick in Hungary in May 2015, was seen on the Tour du Valat estate in April 2018.
More common in central Europe, this wetland-dependent species has only recently arrived in the Camargue (first breeding recorded there in 1991), contrary to its cousin the Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), which has nested there for a long time.
As is the case at many sites in western Europe, this species expanded rapidly in the Camargue as of the early 2000s.
Its expansion can probably be explained by a convergence of favourable factors such as global warming, a halt in the intensive hunting of the species in central Europe, and the gradual disappearance of wetlands, which forced the species to seek refuge in protected areas in western Europe.