NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VICTORIA 
HERONS, BITTERNS, ETC.: SNOWY HERON 
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“loose-webbed, up-curved feathers;” shoulders with “ stiff-shafted up-curved plumes ” 
(Forbush) reaching beyond tail; iris and bare skin of lores yellow, bill black, yellow 
at base, legs black , feet yellow or orange. Adult winter , and young plumage: With¬ 
out shoulder plumes. 
Range. —Temperate and tropical America. Formerly bred from Oregon (recorded 
from Alberta), Nebraska, Indiana, and New Jersey to southern South America; 
now breeds locally in the United States, small colonies being in California and Utah, 
but the main present breeding range is Porto Rico and near the Atlantic coast from 
North Carolina to Louisiana and Texas, south to Chile and Argentina. Resident 
throughout most of its range in South and Central America and in the southern and 
western United States; casual or accidental north to Alberta and Nova Scotia. 
State Records. —Among all the herons and probably among all the birds of North 
America, the Snowy Heron or Egret is the only species of which adult birds migrate 
north in the spring far beyond the northern limit of their breeding range and remain 
there as non-breeders throughout the entire summer. Such birds were noted at 
Fort Thorn in 1853-1855 (Henry), and one was shot in April, 1910, on the Gila River 
near the mouth of Black Canyon (Bergtold). More commonly the young-of-the- 
year migrate north in the fall and are present for several weeks before departing 
for their winter home in the subtropics. One of these migrants was shot in the 
Playa Valley September 24, 1886 (Anthony); another high up in the foothills of the 
Mimbres Mountains on Sappello Creek October 21, 1908 (Bergtold, 1909, p. 76); 
and a third as late as November 5, 1906, at the Canaigre irrigating lake 20 miles 
north of Deming at 4,400 feet (Munson, 1907, p. 212). This last was recorded as 
Ardea egretta , but the specimen was sent to the Biological Survey for examination 
and proved to be the present species. One specimen shot at Mesilla in October, 
1910, is now in the College Museum (Ford), and two birds stayed in the neigh¬ 
borhood the whole summer of 1913 (Merrill). On the Carlsbad Bird Reserve 
it was reported as seen twice in ten years (Willett, 1915). The breeding colonies 
of the Snowy Egret nearest to New Mexico are at Great Salt Lake, Utah, and at 
the mouth of the Rio Grande, Texas. [At the crossing of the Brazos River below 
Park View one was seen May 23, 1918, and another that evening at Lake Burford; 
two at the lake on May 26, and another, June 5, all presumably on their way to 
the Utah colony, the only interior breeding colony in the region (Wetmore).]— 
W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In colonies, a platform of sticks in bushes or low trees over water. Eggs : 
Usually 4 or 5, pale bluish green. 
Food.—F rogs, snakes, lizards, small fish, crawfish, salamanders, crabs, shrimps, 
snails, aquatic insects, and cut-worms. 
General Habits.— The remarkably developed nuptial plumes of 
the Snowy Heron or Egret can not fail to rouse our admiration, and it is 
with peculiar interest that we read of Mr. Forbush’s suggestive and rare 
experience in a Florida swamp where a dozen of the beautiful birds 
were using them in courtship evolutions. As he says, “They strutted 
about, raised, spread and lowered their lace-like plumes, pursued one 
another back and forth, bowed and turned about . . . displaying all 
their airs and graces ... so engrossed . . . that they never 
noticed me until one incautious movement on my part put them all to 
flight” (1925, p. 332). 
