D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
September 2009
Charming in White
Having survived a tragic fashion trend, the snowy egret is back and showing off its plumes — even here in the desert Southwest.
By Jay W. Sharp
If I am ever invited to escort a bird to a royal ball, I think I shall take a snowy egret, a small heron dressed in brilliant pure white feathers throughout the year and adorned with elegant pure white plumes during its breeding season. I would have only one reservation about squiring the snowy egret around before kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes, duchesses and the like. I suspect that it could dance better than I can.
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The snowy egret is "the
most charming of all our marsh birds." (US Fish and Wildlife Service photo.) |
The snowy egret, said the famous amateur ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent in his multi-volume Life Histories of North American Birds, which he published between 1910 and the 1960s, "is the most charming of all our marsh birds." Bent added, "It seems conscious of its beauty and likes to show off its charms for the benefit of its loved ones."
Happily for birdwatchers in the Southwest, despite its northern-sounding name, the snowy egret shows off its charms even here. Although primarily a bird of our Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the snowy egret has managed to find a home across much of the United States. It breeds along the coastlines in the estuarine areas and near river mouths, and inland near stream systems, lakes and ponds. In our Southwest, it breeds in the riverine areas, impoundments and holding ponds. Like other herons, the bird typically forages in the shallows or on nearby land, and it builds its nest near the water's edge.
Some snowy egrets hold permanent residence in the warmer parts of its range. Others, which breed in more northern areas, migrate for the winter into the lower United States southward into Mexico, across the Caribbean and deep into South America. "As with most herons," the Arizona Game and Fish Department says on its website, "the post-breeding dispersing snowies may show up almost anywhere."
The snowy egret (Egretta thula for the science-minded) has feathers so perfectly white that it almost seems to glow in the light of a full moon. It stands about two feet in height and weighs just under a pound. It has a wingspan of three to four feet. An adult snowy egret has a dagger-like black beak, yellowish eyes, long and slender black legs and distinctive yellow-to-orange feet ("golden slippers," Roger Tory Peterson called them). An immature bird looks similar to the adult, but its beak is more pale and its legs are lighter, with a streak of yellow along the backs.
In celebration of the nesting seasons, the snowy egret (sometimes just called a "snowy") puts on its full-feathered finery — indeed, as if dressing for the royal ball. It develops diaphanous plumes along its crest, back, neck and breast, with those along the crest and back curving gracefully upward and those along the breast and neck holding straight.
Wrote Bent, "The display of plumes. . . is part of the courtship performance, where it is seen at its best, but it also used all through the breeding season as a greeting to its mate or its young. In the full display the body is bent forward and downward, the neck is held in a graceful curve, the feathers of the head are raised in a vertical crest, the breast plumes are spread forward and downward, the wings are partially open and raised and the plumes of the back are elevated and spread, with their curving tips waving in the air."
A carnivore that feeds primarily in the early morning and late afternoon, the snowy egret has perfected a wide range of foraging behaviors. Like a hungry teenage boy, it has developed a taste for a broad menu of culinary delights — that is, almost anything that's not nailed down.
According to the Animal Diversity website, the snowy egret will take, not only fish, but also shrimp, crayfish, snails, frogs and aquatic insects.
Stalking in the shallows, often in collusion with other snowies, it may shuffle its "golden slippers" to flush out prey, which it then runs down as the meal attempts to flee. On a chilly morning, as Michael Harwood noted in Moments of Discovery: Adventures with American Birds, the snowy egret may "actually stir the bottom with vibrating motions of [its] feet," waking up its "cold and torpid prey." Alternatively it may lie in wait, perfectly still, then ambush victims that happen to swim or drift past. It may hunt by flying just above the water, its yellow feet almost skimming the surface, then dropping suddenly, like a demon from the sky, on unsuspecting prey.
Foraging on land, along with others of its kind, the snowy egret may stalk slowly, walk rapidly, run or hop to chase down its prey. It may even hang around domestic livestock, waiting for the animals to stir up its prey. Its land diet can include lizards, snakes, toads, earthworms and terrestrial insects.
The snowy egret, which reaches sexual maturity at one to two years of age, begins preparations in the spring to raise a family. Dressed in their fancy seasonal plumage, males and females congregate near roosting and nesting sites, beginning an elaborate ritual of courtship.
| Telling the Difference The snowy egret resembles the great egret, another pure-white wading bird, but is only about half as large. Moreover, the mature snowy egret has a dark bill, dark legs and yellowish to orange feet while the mature great egret has a yellowish bill and slate-colored legs and feet. While the great egret occupies a greater range, the two species occupy similar habitats. Both prey on similar species, although the great egret often aggressively steals food from smaller herons. Both species perform elaborate courtship rituals in the spring, build crude nests of sticks and produce a clutch of several eggs. They incubate their clutches for roughly three and a half weeks, until hatching. They nurture their nestlings, feeding them regurgitated food, for some two or three weeks, until their young fledge and leave the nest. The great and snowy egret both live for 15 years or more, provided they survive the hazards raised by predators such as raccoons, crows and turkey vultures during their first couple of years, until they reach sexual maturity. Both suffered slaughter at the hands of the plume hunters in the late 19th and early 20 centuries and recovered under the protection of laws. |
The male, says the Animal Diversity site, begins to show off — again, much like a teenage boy — doing his best to attract a female. So charged up that his feet change from yellow to reddish orange, he flies in fancy patterns. He croons in a cracking, croaking voice. He points his bill toward heaven and pumps up and down. He quarrels with male competitors. "Standing erect with wings spread and crest raised," wrote Bent, "they spar with half-open beaks or strike heavy blows with their wings, until one has enough and retires."
Somehow, with this perfectly boorish behavior, the male snowy egret manages to attract a female (whose judgment, at that point, we might question), and the two begin their courtship. Perched in the branches of a tree, they sigh romantically, according to John James Audubon. They stretch high on their legs, curving their necks and strutting as they raise their crests. On the ground, in a kind of ethereal plume dance, they pass each other repeatedly, with grace — the male with passion, the female with coyness.
The male selects a nesting site, usually close to his male buddies with whom he scuffled earlier. Both he and his mate set about building their nest, either in a tree or shrub or on the ground. "The male collects the materials and the female does the constructing," according to the US Geological Survey. Little concerned about esthetics or architecture, they produce, in effect, a crude nesting platform of small sticks, twigs and reeds.
In their finished nest, totally lacking romantic sighs, posturing or ceremony, they couple. This tender encounter takes perhaps 10 seconds. The snowy egrets are now ready to produce their only offspring for the entire year.