Reddish Egret

The Reddish Egret is another amazingly beautiful, medium to large sized, heron. They are found, year around in the Bahamas, the Caribbean and parts of Florida. When not breeding they can also be found along the Gulf and Pacific Coasts of Mexico and Central America, They live and forage in marshes, particularly in brackish waters where they dine primarily on fish, crustaceans, frogs and insects.

They nest in swampy areas in colonies with other egrets and herons.

They are considered as a threatened species and are protected in Texas. They were, at one time, hunted for their plumage.

The images I shared here are breeding, dark morph, reddish egrets. The pink in the bill denotes its breeding status. When not breeding, the beak is gray. There is a white morph of the Reddish Egret but I have not seen any of those.

A note about herons and egrets. Herons and egrets are all members of the same family (Ardeidae). But they are not considered distinct groups. The 2 large ones, Great Blue Heron and Great Egret are members of the genus Ardea. The Snowy Egret, Little Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron and Reddish Egret are in the genus Egretta. So, despite the distinction in the common names, they are all related.

Info from:

Cornell Labs All About Birds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Reddish_Egret/overview

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddish_egret

DifferenceBetween.Net: http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/birds-nature/difference-between-heron-and-egret/

Note: Please click on caption to see image at higher resolution