Easily distinguished from the Greater Egret by its much smaller size, black bill, and yellow feet, this small wading bird was also hunted almost to extinction for its plumage in the 1800’s. During breeding season, the Snowy Egret acquires long, lacy plumes just for courtship, which it raises and fans to spectacular effect. Courtship displays begin in January here at Gatorland, with nesting beginning in late February. Snowy Egrets are a colonial nester, making their nests amongst other wading birds such as egrets and herons.

Building their nests in trees and bushes throughout Gatorland’s Breeding Marsh, females will lay 3 - 5 greenish blue eggs that begin to hatch in roughly three to four weeks. The young leave the nest in 20 to 25 days and hop about on branches near the nest before departing. During March and April you can observe the parents teaching their young to fly by coaxing them to hop from branch to branch and eventually short flights between bushes.

Snowy Egrets subsist on fish, crabs, amphibians, and insects, and the occasional pieces of the hot dogs the alligators miss!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 4:06 am and is filed under The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.