Snowy Egret

How to find it

Look along lake edges and big rivers, where the water suddenly gets deeper. Coasts with mudflats and tidal wetlands are also good places to scan. Expect birds spaced fairly well apart, since each usually holds its own feeding territory. A quiet boat helps: on one Costa Rican boat trip the guide cut the engine so the boat could glide toward birds without disturbing them. A river tour at Palo Verde is best very early, just after dawn, when Snowy Egrets and other birds wake and warm themselves in the sun.

How to recognise it

Adults are all white, with a thin black bill, black legs and bright yellow feet. The bare skin between the bill and the eye is yellow too.

Long shaggy plumes grow on the nape and neck. Immature birds have duller, greenish legs. In the breeding season the lores and feet turn orange-red.

In flight it beats its wings deeply and the yellow feet trail visibly behind the body. While feeding it walks upright with the neck slightly arched.

Scan shallow water for a slim, medium-sized white heron with a black bill and legs, then look closer for the yellow face skin and yellow feet.

What it sounds like

Recording: buggybuddy, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Snowy Egret stalks prey in shallow water, often running or shuffling its feet to flush prey into view. It also hovers and dip-fishes with its feet just above the water.

On Costa Rica's coasts, Snowy Egrets may hunt together in coordinated groups. Elsewhere in the country each bird usually feeds in its own territory, spaced fairly well apart from the others.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is locally common in the lowlands of both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes. It sometimes reaches about 700 m and rarely goes higher.

Across its range it lives in many kinds of wetland, including marshes, riverbanks, lakesides, salt marshes and estuaries, and it is not found at high altitudes. A small number nest in big Cattle Egret colonies in the lower Tempisque River basin, and probably at a few other sites.

When to see it

Birds seen in the lowlands are mostly northern migrants that spend the winter, and summer birds are uncommon to rare, mostly first-year birds. Nesting in Costa Rica runs from May to August, and the species moves around seasonally as water levels change.

Similar birds

Great Egret is larger, with a yellow bill and black feet, while Snowy has a black bill and yellow feet. Cattle Egret is much smaller than Great, with a shorter neck and bill, often shows pale salmon colour on the head and chest, and usually stands in drier pasture. A white young Little Blue Heron looks much like a Snowy, but has a greyish bill with a dark tip and pale grey-green legs.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Garceta Nivosa, and the national museum's heron pages also call it Garza nivosa. Elsewhere in Latin America you may hear garza dedos dorados (golden-toed heron), garcita blanca and chusmita.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it R,M, a resident and migrant, and it is rated Least Concern.

Photography tips

Approach by quiet boat where you can, as a gliding boat with the engine cut let one photographer move around and get fairly close. Early morning light just after dawn suits river tours at Palo Verde.