Snowy Egret on a mangrove root
Egretta thula
Snowy Egret · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
A Snowy Egret on a mangrove root in the Everglades, the yellow feet showing. It is a heron of the coastal shallows across the South, an active hunter that runs, stirs and chases where the Great Egret stands and waits, and the mangrove edge is where it works.
The black legs and bright yellow feet - "golden slippers", in the old birding shorthand - are the quickest way to separate a Snowy Egret from the similar but larger Great Egret, which has black legs and black feet to match. Snowy Egrets put those feet to active use, stirring the bottom to flush prey. The yellow is thought to be a lure as well: fish come to look at the bright thing moving in the mud.
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