The Story
I photographed this Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) at the Raudal del Guayabero, near San José del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia, in February 2021. Adults are entirely white apart from yellow lores, a long black bill, black legs and bright yellow feet, and long, shaggy plumes grow on the nape and neck. The species name thula is the Mapudungun word for the Black-necked Swan, applied to this bird by mistake by the Chilean naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 6400, −0.5 EV. An hour’s climb above the Raudal leads to rock paintings of tapirs, lizards and ritual dances, which have not been dated exactly but may be 7,000 to 12,600 years old.
©2022 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