Edward Avery Mcllhenny 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, Mclhenny 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 Mcllhenny 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. Mclhenny
knew that egrets preferred to nest over water, because swimming alligators discouraged other predators from stealing eggs or young egrets.
Mcllhenny 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 Mcllhenny. That fall, Mclhenny 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, Mcllhenny 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. In
deed, Theodore Roosevelt called Bird City "the most noteworthy reserve in the
country" Mcllhenny''s efforts demonstrated that private individuals could s
the initiative and make enormous advances in wildlife conservation. (Marker Number 11.)
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