Every egret is a heron, but not every heron is an egret. Heron is the broad family name for tall wading birds with long necks and spear-like bills, while egret refers specifically to the usually white-plumaged members of that family.
The core difference
Heron is the general name for the wading-bird family, and egret is the name for its typically white-feathered members.
- heron — a tall wading bird with long legs, a long neck, and a spear-like bill: A heron stood motionless in the shallows, waiting for a fish to swim past.
- egret — a wading bird of the heron family, usually white, with a dagger-shaped bill: A great white egret stood motionless at the edge of the reeds.
How to tell them apart
Think of egret as a subset of heron rather than a rival term. If a wading bird is white, it's likely an egret; if it's grey, blue, or another colour, heron is the safer word, since egret specifically describes the white-plumaged branch of the family.
The names even share a root. Egret traces back through Old French to a diminutive of the word for heron, so the two terms have been closely linked for centuries, not just in appearance but in origin too.
