File:Snowy_Egret_(Egretta_thula)_Edwin_B_Forsythe_NWR,_Galloway,_NJ,_USA.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
The Snowy Egret, scientifically classified as *Egretta thula*, is a species of bird within the family Ardeidae and order Ciconiiformes. It belongs to the class Aves and phylum Chordata, with its parent taxon being *Egretta*. The species has an accepted status and was originally described by Molina in 1782. Its IUCN conservation status is listed as Least Concern, a designation recorded in 2025.
This organism has a wingspan of 87.5 and a litter size of 3.2. It inhabits brackish and freshwater environments. The taxon range includes Brazil, South America, Africa, and Belém. The species has existed for about 126 thousand years. Other common names for this bird include crëyr eirwyn, Schmuckreiher, and Garceta nívea.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, WoRMS, IUCN Red List, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 401 inbound references to Snowy Egret, and connects out to Least Concern, Chile and Peru.
It is catalogued under topics including Birds described in 1782, Birds of the Americas and Birds of the Colombian Andes.
Vinony links it to 43 Wikipedia language editions.
Species
Least Concernsnowy egret
Species
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderCiconiiformes
- FamilyArdeidae
via IUCN
Wikidata facts
Show 11 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Least Concern
- taxon name
- Egretta thula
- Commons category
- Egretta thula
- Commons gallery
- Egretta thula
- taxon common name
- snježna čaplja
- wingspan
- 87.5
- litter size
- 3.2
- start time
- 126000-00-
- taxon range
- Belém
- Digital Atlas of Idaho URL
- digitalatlas.cose.isu.edu/bio/birds/bttrn/sneg/sneg_mai.htm
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The snowy egret (Egretta thula) 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.
The snowy egret is the American counterpart to the very similar Old World little egret, which has become established in the Bahamas. At one time, the plumes of the snowy egret were in great demand as decorations for women's hats. They were hunted for these plumes and this reduced the population of the species to dangerously low levels. Now protected in the United States by law, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, this bird's population has rebounded.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Snowy Egret” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.