Snowy Egret, breeding plumes
Egretta thula
Snowy Egret · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
A Snowy Egret in the Everglades in February, the recurved plumes streaming off the back of the head. Snowies are herons of the coastal marshes and shallows across the American South, and the Everglades rookeries are where the plume trade found them.
The plumes are breeding finery, present only for a few months each spring and gone again once the season's chicks have fledged. Snowy Egrets were hit harder than almost any other species by the plume trade around 1900, purely because these particular feathers were considered the most desirable of all - reportedly worth more than their weight in gold at the trade's peak. Two wardens were murdered in Florida protecting the rookeries.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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