Conservation Icons
BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN: 978-0-7267-8755-5)
by
Budd Titlow
Dazzling white feathers and gracefully buoyant flight make the great egret an iconic symbol of the avian world. So much so that in 1953 the National Audubon Society, one of America’s most esteemed and important conservation organizations, adopted a drawing of a great egret in flight as its official logo.
Looking iconic in its regal flight, a Great Egret (Ardea alba) wings its way toward its marshland fishing habitat. (Photo Copyright Budd Titlow, NATUREGRAPHS)
Living and nesting in both fresh and saltwater wetlands, great egrets range along the East Coast from Maine to Florida, west along the Gulf Coast to Texas, and in isolated pockets along the West Coast. Feeding in classic wading bird fashion, these gangly birds stand stock-still in shallow water, then suddenly lash out to spear their prey with quick jabs of their needle-sharp bills and long, sinuous necks. They primarily eat fish, but frogs, crayfish, turtles, snakes, shrimp, marine worms, large insects, rodents, and even other birds are also often on their menus.
Great egrets are closely related to great blue herons, though the great egret is slightly smaller and more svelte than the great blue. Also, the great egret makes a polite gronk sound when it takes flight but it’s much more subdued—even dainty—compared to the great blue’s lusty, booming GGGRRRONKKK.
During the nesting season, great egrets become even more spectacularly coiffed. Long, billowy plumes called “aigrettes” (from which the word “egrets” evolved) sprout from their backs and tails. In one of the bird world’s most visually stunning courtship displays, great egrets fan these freshly grown feathers out wide so that they completely envelop their bodies and heads. Unfortunately, these magnificent exhibitions of feathery fancy almost led to their demise.
During the height of the “plume boom” in the 1880s, wearing bird feathers in flamboyant hats was all the rage for social standing among women—the more plumes, the higher the status. This demand led to a burgeoning industry involving nearly eighty thousand murderous milliners and thousands more plume hunters, all with the same goal—to shoot and kill entire nesting colonies of wading birds. The delicate aigrette feathers of great egrets were especially in demand.
Estimates of the total carnage are both unbelievable and reprehensible. According to statistics, milliners in New York City alone were supplied with 130,000 egret “scalps” during 1892. Naturalist Scott Weidensaul provides this sordid summary: “Overall, the plume trade was chewing through an estimated two hundred million (wading) birds a year.”
The deaths of three game wardens charged with stopping this wanton slaughter sparked a national outcry and led to the two landmark conservation happenings. First in 1896, two outraged Boston socialites and cousins—Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall—created the nation’s first Audubon Society in Massachusetts. Within six years, twenty-six other states had their own Audubon Societies. Then, Congress finally took action against the fashion feather industry, passing the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act which provided full federal protection for great egrets and the rest of this nation’s wading bird populations.
As a result of these two historic conservation events, great egrets—as well as populations of our other majestically feathered wading birds—recovered quickly and are still doing well today.
Text Excerpted from Book: Bird Brains: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends, written by Budd Titlow and published by Lyons Press (an imprint of Globe Pequot Press).
Author’s bio:For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need.Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
This Birding Life 