Recent winter weather in the northern latitudes of the USA and other countries has made panhandle Florida look even better. Blizzards, snow drifts, avalanches and the like make north Florida, with its relatively mild temperatures, appear as a paradise.
Still there is plenty of patchy white in the environment. The sugar white sands, as well as many faded shells, display the influence of frequent solarization.
Additionally, the prominence of white on birds in this decolorized environment provides effective camouflage so they can literally blend into the background for more effective hunting.
One such avian example is the snowy egret. Egretta thula, as this bird is scientifically known, is a full-time resident of the beaches and back waters of the gulf coast. Despite the name, it is literally the polar opposite of life in icy environs.
At the end of the day, a snowy egret surveys its hunting grounds looking for one last morsel before roosting.
This small heron is in the same family, but not genus, with the cattle egrets which are commonly seen in fields and pastures hunting bugs. The cattle egret usually has some rust-colored feathers, and its ancestors arrived in North America about 100 years ago from north Africa and southwestern Europe.
The snowy egret, as the name implies, has white feathers with no supplemental tones or shades. Adults stand about two feet in height, sometimes with the appearance of slouching shoulders which rest the head on the chest.
Fashions and styles being what they are, this bird’s fine and fluffy white feathers became quite popular as an adornment for women’s hats during the late 19th century. While mimicry can be flattering, it can also be detrimental to a bird’s survival prospects.
Market hunters, in an effort to capitalize on strong economic demand and high prices for the wispy plumage, focused their efforts on this and similar species. Untold numbers of this bird were slaughtered to satisfy the fickle desires of the style conscious in the urban salons and manor houses.
Luckily for the remaining snowy egrets, feathers became passé for the human population and the hunting pressure was off. Time, and stringent Federal protection, allowed this vigorous species to recover to its former numbers.
This bird eats mostly creatures associated with its aquatic habitat. Fish, frogs, and crustaceans are on the menu, but so are insects and worms which expose themselves to this wading bird.
Its large yellow feet provide a stable platform from which to hunt and are well adapted to raking through the sand and mud to reveal hidden creatures. Their hunting grounds include salt marsh pools, tidal channels and flats, freshwater marshes, swamps, inlets, and pond edges, usually preferring brackish or marine habitats with calm, shallow water.
Sometimes other foraging water birds will appear to work collectively with the snowy egrets forming a mixed species group, each using its unique assets to scour for disguised nutrition.
Very few prey species can evade these effective predators. Under the bright winter sun warming all area residents, the pressure is intense on tasty tidbits favored by snowy egrets.
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