Least ConcernSnowy Egret
Egretta thula
37 countries28 parks
Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 4 species of egret, in the family Ardeidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 171 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It came to the brink of extinction because its breeding plumes were worth more than gold to the hat trade.
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It hunts by stirring the bottom with its yellow feet to flush out prey, a technique known as foot stirring that has earned it the nickname "golden slippers".
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Mass hunting to sell its ornamental plumes to the millinery trade in the late 19th century almost wiped it out; its recovery lies at the origin of the American conservation movement.
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The young are born wholly white and take on the adult's characteristic blue-grey gradually over their first year.
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It changes colour completely as it matures: it hatches white and moults to slate blue, passing through a mottled intermediate stage that ornithologists call "calico".
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Its resemblance as a juvenile to the snowy egret is no coincidence: they are close relatives within the genus Egretta.
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It was hunted on a massive scale in the nineteenth century for its breeding plumes, used on hats.
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It became locally extinct across much of north-western Europe before recovering.
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