San Francisco Bay Area Seabirds, Snowy White Egret

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

San Francisco Bay Area Seabirds, Snowy White Egret

San Francisco Bay Area Bird Watching
SeaBirds of Marin, SF Bay and Gulf of the Farallones

Snowy White Egret

Sea Birds of the San Francisco Bay, Marin. Snowy White Egrets Learning to Fly, Marin, California.

Facts:

Scientific classification

Binomial name

Egretta thula

Description:

The Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) is a small white heron. Adults are about two feet in length and have a wingspan of about three feet. They have long black legs with bright yellow feet, a black bill which can look yellow in the some lighting, and a yellow patch around their eyes. There eyes are yellow but turn red in the breeding season. The grow mating plumage during breeding season which could be described as either shaggy or lacy. The juvenile looks similar to the adult, but the base of the bill is paler, and a green or yellow line runs down the back of the legs.

They nest in colonies, often with other waders, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. Their flat, shallow nests are made of sticks and lined with fine twigs and rushes. Three to four greenish-blue, oval eggs are incubated by both adults. The young leave the nest in 20 to 25 days and hop about on branches near the nest before finally departing. In the San Francisco Bay area they have two main breeding locations or "rookeries". The first is the Audobon Ranch in Bolinas California and the other is Marin Island in the North Bay. The Audobohn Ranch has viewing platforms, guided walks, and binoculars available during breeding season. Like any household with kids and teenagers, rookeries are very noisy and there is a lot of coming and going. Snowy White Egrets can be seen all over the Marin area, but particularly eating at shallow inland waters like Richardson Bay and the lagoon at Rodeo Beach. They also can be seen brazenly hunting in the Medians like highway 101 and Miller Avenue. Besides the yellow feet, a way to tell them apart from Great Egrets is they kick the bottom up to look for food. It looks kind of like a dance. They eat fish, crustaceans, and insects. They also "dip-fish" by flying with their feet low over the water. Snowy Egrets may also stand still and wait to ambush prey, or hunt for insects stirred up by domestic animals in open fields.

Once popular for it's feathers for human clothing ornamentation. This reduced the population of the species to dangerously low levels. Now it is protected by law, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, this bird's population has rebounded.