Plume hunting

Flamingoes, roseate spoonbills, great egrets, blue herons, and peafowl have also been targeted by plume hunters.

Victorian-era fashion included large hats with wide brims decorated in elaborate creations of silk flowers, ribbons, and exotic plumes.

The fashion craze, which began in the 1870s, became so widespread that by 1886 birds were being killed for the millinery trade at a rate of five million a year; many species faced extinction as a result.

[2] In Florida, plume birds were first driven away from the most populated areas in the northern part of the state, and forced to nest further south.

Rookeries concentrated in and around the Everglades area, which had abundant food and seasonal dry periods, ideal for nesting birds.

[5] Poachers often entered the densely populated rookeries, where they would shoot and then pluck the roosting birds clean, leaving their carcasses to rot.

Unprotected eggs became easy prey for predators, as were newly hatched birds, who also starved or died from exposure.

"[12] In 1885, 15-year-old Guy Bradley and his older brother Louis served as scouts for noted French plume hunter Jean Chevalier on his trip to the Everglades.

McIlhenny established the refuge around 1895 on his own personal tract of the 2,200-acre (8.9 km2) island, a 250-acre (1.0 km2) estate known eventually as Jungle Gardens because of its lush tropical flora in response to late 19th century plume hunters nearly wiping out the snowy egret population of the United States while in pursuit of the bird's delicate feathers.

[17] Because of its early founding and example to others, Theodore Roosevelt, father of American conservationism, once referred to Bird City as "the most noteworthy reserve in the country.

"[18] Today, snowy egrets continue to return to Bird City each spring to nest until resuming their migration in the fall.