The reddish egret (''Egretta rufescens'') is a medium-sized heron that is a resident breeder in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

The Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast of the United States (primarily

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

), and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The egret is known for its unusual foraging behavior compared to other herons as well as its association with mud flats, its habitat of choice. In the past, this bird was a victim of the

plume trade Plume hunting is the hunting of wild birds to harvest their feathers, especially the more decorative plumes which were sold for use as ornamentation, such as aigrettes in millinery. The movement against the plume trade in the United Kingdom wa ...

and is North America’s "rarest and least studied ardeid."

Taxonomy

The reddish egret was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

's '' Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the herons, cranes and egrets in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea rufescens''. Gmelin based his description on that of the English ornithologist John Latham who in 1785 had included the species in his multi-volume ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham had in turn based his own description on the "L'Aigrette rousse, de la Louisiane" that the French polymath Comte de Buffon had described and illustrated in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux''. The reddish egret is now placed with 12 other species in the genus ''

Egretta ''Egretta'' is a genus of medium-sized herons, mostly breeding in warmer climates. Representatives of this genus are found in most of the world, and the little egret, as well as being widespread throughout much of the Old World, has now started ...

'' that was introduced in 1817 by the German naturalist

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America. He is best known ...

. The genus name comes from the Provençal French word for the little egret, ''aigrette'', a diminutive of ''aigron'', "heron". The specific epithet ''rufescens'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

meaning "reddish". Two subspecies are recognised: * ''E. r. rufescens'' ( Gmelin 1789) – south USA, West Indies and Mexico * ''E. r. dickeyi'' ( Van Rossem, 1926) – Baja California (Mexico)

Description

This species reaches in length, with a wingspan. Body mass in this species can range from . Among standard linear measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the bill is and the tarsus is . It is a medium-sized, long-legged, long-necked heron with a long pointed pinkish bill with a black tip. It is distinctly larger than other co-existing members of the genus ''Egretta'', but smaller than the great blue heron and

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and ...

. The legs and feet are bluish-black. While the sexes are similar, there are two distinct color morphs. The adult dark morph has a slate blue body and reddish head and neck with shaggy plumes. The adult white morph has entirely white body plumage. Young birds have a brown body, head, and neck. During mating, the male's plumage stands out in a ruff on its head, neck and back. The bird's usual cry is a low, guttural croak.

Behavior

The reddish egret is considered one of the most active herons, and is often seen on the move. It stalks its prey (

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s, and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s) in shallow water, typically near mud flats, while frequently running energetically and using the shadow of its wings to reduce glare on the water once it is in position to spear its prey. Due to its bold, rapacious yet graceful feeding behavior and its typical proximity to mud flats, author

Pete Dunne Peter Thomas England (born 9 November 1993) is an English Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown (WWE brand), SmackDown WWE brand extension, brand under the ring name Butc ...

nicknamed the reddish egret "the

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

of the Flats".

Breeding

The reddish egret is a resident breeder in

, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast of the United States, and

. Its breeding habitat is tropical swamps. It nests in colonies, often with other herons, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. These colonies are usually located on coastal islands. These birds have raucous courtship displays. They generally involve shaking of the head during the greeting ceremony, followed by chases and circle flights. They also involve raising of the neck, back and crest feathers, accompanied by bill clacking, similar to the

tricolored heron The tricolored heron (''Egretta tricolor''), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a small species of heron native to coastal parts of the Americas; in the Atlantic region, it ranges from the northeastern United States, south along the coast ...

. According to the

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) is a Texas state agency that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitats. In addition, the agency is responsible for managing the state's parks and historical areas. Its mission is to manage ...

, there are only 1,500 to 2,000 nesting pairs of reddish egrets in the United States — and most of these are in

. They are classified as "threatened" in Texas and receive special protection.

Gallery

File:Reddish Egret Canopy Hunting.jpg, Canopy hunting File:Reddish Egret & Snowy Egret - Long Key State Park, Florida.jpg, With

at Long Key State Park File:Reddish Egret - Long Key State Park.jpg, At Long Key State Park File:Reddish Egret Mix morph.jpg, Intermediate morph in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

File:Reddish egret fishing.png, Fishing the mangroves, Lac Cai, Bonaire File:Reddish Egret Canopy Fishing (1 of 1).jpg, Canopy fishing, Lac Cai, Bonaire File:Reddish Egret 3865.jpg, Reddish Egret (Bolsa Chica Wetlands - Huntington Beach, CA)

References

External links

Egretta rufescens at Field Guide: Birds of the World on Flickr
* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q258791 reddish egret Wading birds Birds of the Caribbean Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Central America Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Native birds of the Southeastern United States Native birds of the Southwestern United States Birds of Mexico reddish egret reddish egret