snowy egret

American  

noun

1. a white egret, Egretta thula, of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere: formerly hunted in great numbers for its plumes, the species is now protected and has recovered.

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snowy egret British  

noun

1. a small American egret, Egretta thula, having a white plumage, yellow legs, and a black bill

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Etymology

Origin of snowy egret

An Americanism dating back to 1890–95

Example Sentences

He said a snowy egret swooped down and looked like it was going to dive for my head, then decided not to.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025

And the birds: great blue heron, green heron, tri-colored heron, great egret, cattle egret, snowy egret, red shouldered hawk, red-tailed hawk, Coopers hawk.

From Washington Post • Apr. 5, 2023

In 1886, snowy egret plumes developed during breeding season were worth $32 per ounce, twice the value of gold at that time, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

From Washington Times • Jul. 5, 2017

And it’s unlikely that the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute would yield anything more extravagant than the plumage of the snowy egret, an apparition of weightless white filament set against a Romantically storm-swollen sky.

From New York Times • Mar. 27, 2014

Illinois: Passenger pigeon, whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet, trumpeter swan, snowy egret, Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, white-tailed deer, black bear, puma, Canada lynx.

From Our Vanishing Wild Life Its Extermination and Preservation by Hornaday, William Temple