Bird City

Bird City. . , Edward Avery McIlhenny was inspired to create Bird City after a British colonial official visited Avery Island. The official told the story of a Rajah in India who built enormous "flying cages” (aviaries) to house his live bird collection. When the Rajah grew old, the cages were abandoned and fell apart, yet the birds remained, raising their young year after year at the same spot they themselves had been raised., Around 1895, McIlhenny decided to build his own flying cage to help save the Snowy Egret, whose numbers had plummeted in recent times because of heavy demand for egret plumes, used to decorate women''s hats. For his flying cage McIlhenny chose "a small, wet area known as Willow Pond.” Building a dam around the place, he increased the pond's size to thirty-five acres. He then constructed an enormous flying cage of poultry netting suspended over the water. McIlhenny knew that egrets preferred to nest over water, because swimming alligators discouraged other predators from stealing eggs or young egrets., McIlhenny soon found eight young snowy Egrets and hand-raised them. They thrived and appeared content in the cage, and even seemed to enjoy interacting with McIlhenny. That fall, McIlhenny freed the birds to migrate south. Early the following spring-as he had hoped-six of his original eight birds returned to the flying cage, where they paired off and hatched eight more chicks. This happy pattern continued and sixteen years later in the spring of 1911, McIlhenny estimated that one hundred thousand birds occupied the rookery now known as Bird City. Bird City significantly helped to revive south Louisiana's egret population. Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt called Bird City "the most noteworthy reserve in the country” McIlhenny's efforts demonstrated that private individuals could seize the initiative and make enormous advances in wildlife conservation.