Bird City (wildfowl refuge)
Avery Island, Louisiana
, c. 2005.Bird City is a private
Iberia Parish, Louisiana
.
It was founded by
estate known eventually as Jungle Gardens because of its lush tropical flora
.
By the late 19th century,
.Alarmed by this trend, McIlhenny searched the
Gulf Coast and located several surviving egrets, which he took back to his estate on Avery Island. There he turned the birds loose in a type of aviary he called a "flying cage," where the birds soon adapted to their new surroundings. In the fall McIlhenny set the birds loose to migrate
south for the winter.
As he hoped, the birds returned to Avery Island in the spring, bringing with them even more snowy egrets. This pattern continued until, by 1911, the refuge served as the summer nesting ground for an estimated 100,000 egrets.[1]
Because of its early founding and example to others,
conservationism, once referred to Bird City as "the most noteworthy reserve in the country."[2]
Today, snowy egrets continue to return to Bird City each spring to nest until resuming their migration in the fall.
References
- ^ Edward Avery McIlhenny, Bird City (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1935), passim.
- ^ Theodore, Roosevelt, "Bird Reserves at the Mouth of the Mississippi River," A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open (1916), n.p.