Owner Comments:
The 2018-S Silver Reverse Proof Set has brought both the first reverse proof coins to the set and a couple of new modern dinosaurs. The first one we will examine is the Snowy Egret, species name Egretta thula.
The Snowy Egret is a member of the Heron family and it is small for a member of that family. Snowy Egrets are typically 2 feet in length, with a wingspan of 39.4 inches and a weight of 13.1 ounces. The Snowy Egret’s name derives from its bright white plumage, which when paired with the black legs and beak, yellow feet and yellow upper bill makes for an overall distinctive and absolutely stunning appearance. In the breeding season, adults gain long plumes along their necks, backs and heads along with red upper bills, making them even more beautiful. There is no sexual dimorphism among Snowy Egrets and juveniles look much like the adults, but with paler beaks and greenish-black legs.
Snowy Egrets live in wetlands in the extreme Southeastern United States, Mexico and most of Central and South America. Some pairs also breed in the more northern parts of the American Southeast and the Pacific Northwest, though they are uncommon in these areas. Snowy Egrets tend to be migratory and will live in different locations almost every year. Like other herons, the Snowy Egret is a predator of aquatic animals. Its main prey items are fish, amphibians, invertebrates and small mammals and reptiles. The Snowy Egret is a stalker, which will paddle in the water and sift through the mud to startle and round up prey before striking with its long, sharp bill, impaling the unfortunate prey animal before swallowing it whole. Snowy Egrets will also sight prey by hovering over the water and then diving after sighted animals to hunt them down and impale them with their bill. Snowy Egrets are so efficient at scaring prey animals out into the open that many other foraging water birds will join with Snowy Egrets to benefit from their hunting behaviors.
As far as breeding goes, I was able to find that Snowy Egrets are monogamous, but I was unable to find if the pair bonds are lifelong or if they are monogamous only for a single breeding season. Snowy Egrets reach sexual maturity at between 1 and 2 years of age. Males return to breeding grounds before females to select a nest site and to perform elaborate displays to attract a mate. The male begins building the nest but once a pair bond is formed, the female takes over and she actually does most of the work in nest construction. The nest is built from sticks and other plant material. Snowy Egrets typically produce between 3 and 5 eggs, which both parents incubate for 20-24 days, after which the young hatch. Snowy Egrets are born white, fuzzy and helpless. Both parents feed the babies by regurgitation and work to keep the nest clean. Snowy Egret pairs have an elaborate greeting ritual that they perform for their mate when they return to the nest from foraging, with some pairs even “passing a baton”, using a stick. At around 20-25 days of age, the babies may first clamber out of the nest but they are unable to fly before 30 days of age. Once they can fly, the young leave the nest to begin their own adult life. Snowy Egrets nest communally and the communities often consist of many different species of birds, including Great Egrets, night-herons, Glossy Ibises, Little Blue Herons, Tricolored Herons, Cattle Egrets, and Roseate Spoonbills.
Snowy Egrets have few predators. Nests can be raided by many species of corvids, snakes, owls and crocodilians as well as Common and Alligator Snapping Turtles. Snowy Egrets of all ages can be preyed upon by Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Red-Tailed Hawks and American Alligators. If they can avoid these predators, Snowy Egrets can live for 17 years.
The Snowy Egret is also a conservation success story. These beautiful modern dinosaurs almost joined their ancestors in extinction in the late 19th Century due to hunting to get their breeding plumes as they were popular fashion accessories at that time. Legal protection helped them immensely, with their populations stabilizing in 1966 and they are now more numerous than ever before. The Snowy Egret shows that conservation laws work and that they are important to maintain.
The Snowy Egret is also a modern dinosaur which bears a strong resemblance to one of its Mesozoic ancestors, in this case Halszkaraptor escuilliei. Halszkaraptor was the only known semi-aquatic dromaeosaur and it lived in what is now Mongolia between 75-71 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period. In a compelling example of two related animals evolving to fill a similar ecological niche creating a similar appearance, Halszkaraptor basically looked like a Snowy Egret with a long tail, shorter wings with unfused fingers, a sickle claw on the inner toes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Halszkaraptor and the Snowy Egret were even similar in size. While we do not know what color Halszkaraptor was, most scientific reconstructions hypothesize a white coloration, adding to the similarities. The Snowy Egret and Halskaraptor are another great pair which shows that if prehistoric theropods were seen by humans in life, they would simply appear to us as somewhat strange birds. Which, as we know now, is essentially the truth.