Snowy egret - telling them apart from cattle egrets.

Snowy egret photographed in San Francisco

Yesterday (September 30), Kathryn and I went to the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We walked from there for a couple of hours and ended up at a freshwater estuary called Crissy Marsh.

While there, we saw quite a few birds, a great egret, a couple of snowy egrets, and a pair of remarkable curlews.  I will talk about those another day.  I watched the snowy egrets for quite a while and photographed them in various poses.

Snowy egrets are "common and widespread."  I have seen them in Texas, in the Caribbean, and of course in San Francisco.  They are easy to identify in that they are mostly white with a distinctive yellow patch around the eyes leading to the beak and black and yellow legs.  Cattle egrets look similar but have a yellow bill and black legs.

I have included a photo below of a cattle egret.  You can see the yellow bill and black legs that clearly distinguish it from the snowy egret's.  Cattle egrets also tend to spend time away from wetlands while snowy egrets prefer them.  Cattle egrets often enjoy the company of herding species as the moving creatures stir up insects that are quickly chased down.

Cattle egret - notice the yellow beak and black legs.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com 

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