Snowy Egret
Egretta thula · Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns
Banding codeSNEG
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 24 in long.
2Color pattern
- All white
- Slim black bill
- Black legs with bright yellow feet
3Habitat & season
Marshes, shallow ponds, ditches
In northern Utah: summer.
Seen most often in May, August and September.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
Harsh, croaking calls at colonies.
“a hoarse 'aarg'”
iNat 125406432 by Charla · Carpinteria, CA 93013, USA · CC BY
Know it
- Has bright yellow feet on black legs — its 'golden slippers.'
- Its lacy plumes were once worth more than gold, and the plume trade nearly wiped it out.
- Shuffles its feet in the water to stir up prey.
- Nests in mixed colonies in the Great Salt Lake's marshes.
Often confused with
American White Pelican- Little Egret
- Great Egret
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The snowy egret is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, aigrette, which is a diminutive of aigron, 'heron'. The species name thula is the Mapudungun term for the black-necked swan, applied to this species in error by Chilean naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0