Plume Hunters, Guy Bradley and the Birth of Bird Protection

The great white egret in flight is one of the signature sights of an Everglades airboat ride. A little over a century ago, it was almost gone.

Feathers for hats

In the late 1800s, women's hats decorated with long breeding plumes, called aigrettes, were high fashion in New York, London and Paris. The finest plumes came from egrets and other wading birds nesting in Florida's rookeries. Hunters shot adults at the nest during breeding season, leaving chicks to die. By the early 1900s, some colonies had been wiped out entirely.

New laws, few wardens

Bird lovers organized Audubon societies and pushed for protection. Florida passed laws against plume hunting, and the federal Lacey Act of 1900 made it illegal to ship birds taken in violation of state law across state lines. But enforcement in the remote Everglades depended on a handful of wardens.

Guy Bradley

One of them was Guy Bradley, a young man from Flamingo at the southern tip of the peninsula, hired as a warden with support from the Audubon movement. In July 1905, he tried to arrest a plume hunter near a rookery off Cape Sable and was shot and killed. He is remembered as one of the first wildlife officers killed protecting birds in the United States, and his death helped turn public opinion against the plume trade.

The comeback

Changing fashions, new laws and, later, the protection of Everglades National Park allowed wading birds to recover. Today their numbers are watched closely as a sign of Everglades health; when water flows improve, nesting colonies often respond.

Look for great egrets, snowy egrets and herons along the sawgrass edges on your ride. Each one is part of a recovery story.

The economics of a feather

At the height of the trade, egret plumes were reported to be worth more than their weight in gold. That kind of money drove hunters into remote rookeries across South Florida. Because plumes were most valuable during nesting season, entire colonies could be destroyed in a single season.

A movement takes flight

The plume trade helped spark the early American bird-conservation movement. Women's groups in particular organized boycotts of feathered hats. State Audubon societies formed across the country, and they eventually joined together in a national association. Federal laws protecting migratory birds followed in the 1910s, culminating in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Remembering Bradley

Guy Bradley is remembered in Everglades National Park and by wildlife-law-enforcement organizations. Conservation awards named in his honor recognize outstanding wildlife officers. His story is often told as the starting point of professional wildlife protection in the United States.

Birds and water today

Today the biggest threat to Everglades wading birds is not hunters but changes to water. Birds need water levels that fall at the right pace during the dry season to concentrate fish for their chicks. Restoration scientists use wading bird nesting, especially wood storks and white ibis, as one of the main measures of whether water management is working.