Photo: Chris Sloan

    No breeding sites for the Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, were observed on the 2008 Tennessee Colonial Wading Birds Breeding Surveys. . There was little survey work in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain where the species most likely would be found breeding. During the Tennessee Breeding Birds Atlas period, 1986-1992, only two breeding sites were confirmed in the state, Lake County and Lauderdale County. Prior to 1986, there were confirmed breeding records in Dyer County and Shelby County for the only other breeding counties in Tennessee (Nicholson, Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Tennessee, pages 73-74, 1997).
    In Middle Tennessee, Cages Bend, on the Cumberland River (Old Hickory Lake), on May 5, 2006, 3 adult Snowy Egrets in high breeding plumage were observed but no nest could be found in the dense vegetation on the island (Chris Sloan).