The Story
This is a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) that I photographed at the Malecón Cameguadua in Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia on June 23, 2017. Protected in the United States under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, its population has recovered. It lives in marshes, riverbanks, lakesides and estuaries and is present all year in South America. Its plumes were once in such demand for women’s hats that hunting pushed it to dangerously low numbers. The reservoir sits at about 1,370 meters and has two lakes, with the tourist boardwalk, the malecón, on the northern one.
I photographed it with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1000. IUCN lists the Snowy Egret as Least Concern with an increasing population, and Chinchiná is part of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List