“Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
Langston Hughes

Snowy Egret

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Ciconiiformes
Family: Ardeidae
Genus: Egretta
Species: Egretta thula
Authority: Molina

Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

Pentax K-x, Pentax 50-200mm
f/5.6
1/320 sec
ISO 200
200mm

From Common Birds of Louisiana:
“This beautiful white bird is a permanent resident of Louisiana, wintering along the coast. The bill and legs are black, the toes yellow, and the space around the eyes greenish-yellow. The long white plumes on the head and back, present during the breeding season, are perhaps the most beautiful parts of this bird. The food consists of small fish. The young are fed by regurgitation, as are a great many other young birds.

Mangroves and swampy willow ponds furnish the proper habitat for the nesting colonies. The nests are built of rough sticks and lined with marsh vegetation and rootlets. Two to five pale bluish-green eggs are laid.

The American Egret is a much larger bird but very closely related to the Snowy Egret. However, it has a yellow bill and black legs and toes. This bird is often incorrectly called the White Crane.

Not very many years ago these lovely birds were nearing extinction. It was all the fad for women to wear aigrettes, the plumes of the Egret, in their hats. To obtain these, adult nesting birds had to be killed. These were slaughtered in huge numbers, leaving the helpless young to suffer and die. Before the last Egrets were killed the Federal government passed laws making it illegal to wear or to sell the plumes."
http://www.lapage.com/birds/birds1.htm

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