How to Identify aSnowy Egret
Egretta thula · 22.1–26 in (56–66 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Entirely white with a slim black bill, black legs and golden-yellow feet; lacy plumes when breeding. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male in the field.
Male photo: Chuck Homler d/b/a Focus On Wildlife / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Second photo: Frank Schulenburg / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Field marks
- Bright yellow feet on black legs — the "golden slippers"
- Thin all-black bill
- Shaggy recurved plumes on the head and back when breeding
- Smaller and slimmer than a Great Egret
Similar species
What it sounds like
A harsh, low croak, mostly at colonies.
Behaviour that gives it away
Feeds actively, shuffling one yellow foot in the mud to startle prey into moving rather than standing still.
Habitat & range
Marshes, tidal flats, ponds and shorelines, mostly coastal and southern.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in North America you are, it is present all year and a summer visitor that arrives to breed.
What it eats
Small fish, crustaceans, insects and amphibians.
Did you know?
Its breeding plumes were once worth more per ounce than gold, and the trade nearly wiped the species out.
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