Egrets

The Egrets page contains 60 images of Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets and Reddish Egrets
taken in wildlife refuges in California, Virginia and Sanibel Island off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

This page includes images and composites of the “Great Egret Flip”.

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Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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Great Egret

The Great Egret stands about three feet tall (a little smaller than the Great Blue Heron), has a slightly down-curved bill, all white plumage and grayish-black legs. The white morph of the Great Blue Heron in Southern Florida is sometimes confused with the Great Egret, but it has a heavier bill that is straight on top and yellowish legs.

The Great Egret is an elegant bird which can be a challenge to expose in many situations, but it looks quite spectacular in flight. Like many egrets, they take off with their neck extended and fly with their neck retracted in an S-shape.

Because of their short tongues, Egrets tend to flip their prey into the air, then catch it in their gullet (the Egret Flip).

The first shots I caught of the “flip” caused quite a stir in the photographic community,  and for a while everyone was trying to catch this action. Watch a bird for a while and you will recognize the movement they make before the flip. The prey is only in the air for a fraction of a second, so you have to be quick to catch it centered (or shoot a sequence and hope for the best).

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Great Egret Portrait 0125

A Great Egret fluffs up his crest, reacting to my appearance.

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Great Egret Portrait 0129

He then settles down for a profile portrait opportunity.

These two backlit portraits taken at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge were difficult exposures.
The tendency is to hold all highlights, which underexposes the bird, losing feather detail.
Allowing the edge of the bird to blow as it does to the eye achieves a correct exposure.

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Great Egret Portrait X1068

A Great Egret vignetted by the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica wetlands on an overcast day in June.
The flat light made the exposure of this white bird significantly easier to control than it usually is.

The Great Egret stands about three feet tall and is nearly as large as the Great Blue Heron.
It has a yellow bill, black legs and feet, and all white plumage. In the breeding season, the legs
become lighter and the Egret grows long ornamental feathers on its back (shown in images below).

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Great Egret Great Blue Heron X8403

A difficult exposure of a Great Egret walking across a canal in front of a deeply shadowed Great Blue Heron.

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Great Egret X8430

A more difficult exposure of a perched Great Egret, strongly side-lit and standing in front of a dark background. To avoid blowing highlights on a brightly-lit white bird and reveal feather detail without getting noise in the background is challenging.

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Great Egret X5358

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Great Egret X5378

A Great Egret standing in the reeds beside the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge. They rarely stretch their necks like this.

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Great Egret on Roof at Sunrise 0135

A Great Egret standing atop the Bait Shack on Bunch Beach, on Sanibel Island, Florida. He waited for the owner to throw out the leftover fish, then dove off the roof to catch a meal.

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Great Egret at Sunrise 3821

A Great Egret standing beside a canal on Chincoteague Island at sunrise. More Chincoteague images are below.

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Great Egret Sunrise 3828

Another sunrise Great Egret portrait taken on Chincoteague Island, VA.

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Narcissistic Egret 3131

Shot from the top of a bank, creating an unusual downward angle,
this image has a superb reflection which adds to the composition.

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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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GreatEgret_Roosting_3792M


Great Egret Roosting 3792 M

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Great Egret Sunrise Hunt 3898 M

A Great Egret waits in his roost for sunrise, then patrols a canal for his breakfast on Chincoteague Island, VA.

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Great Egret Sunrise Hunt M

A 1505 x 1290 composite of a great Egret hunting at sunrise on Chincoteague Island.

This is near the site of a hunting sequence which led to the first “Great Egret Flip”shot.
That shot caused a minor furor in the photographic community (images shown below).

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Great Egret Hunting 3767

This Egret is the consummate angler which caused such a stir.

The image was taken just before sunset, the day before the images shown below.
This particular Great Egret has found the perfect spot to hunt Silversides, a relatively
small fish which requires significant numbers to satisfy a large bird like a Great Egret.
The images below were shot the next day, at the same time but during a total overcast.

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Great Egret Hunting 4094 M

You can see how small a fish the Silversides are. He must have caught 50 or more fish during the time
I watched him. This Great Egret was a most excellent angler... about 75% of his strikes were successful.

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Great Egret Hunting 4125

This is one of the strikes which was not successful. Note the eyelashes.

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Great Egret Hunting 4137 M

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Great Egret Hunting 4138

These two shots were 0.1 second apart. The strikes are fast.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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GreatEgret_Hunting_4143


Great Egret Hunting 4143

A Great Egret hunting the tiny fish known as Silversides off Chincoteague Island, Virginia.

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Great Egret Flip 4156

This was the first “Great Egret Flip”. The Egret’s tongue is rather short,
so the way they get the prey back into their gullet is to flip it in the air, then
strike forward, and catch it at the rear of the bill where the tongue can grab it.

The image above is the shot which started photographers studying these birds so they could
predict and capture “The Flip”. Each bird has a ‘tell’, that gives you a half second or so of warning
that they are going to ”Flip” the prey. The trick is to watch a bird until you know its ‘tell’ movement,
and then shoot a sequence. The prey is in the air between the jaws for only 1/4 second or so,
and it is very difficult to get it in one shot, so take a sequence of four and you may get it.

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Great Egret Flip 0159

This one, shot during a training session on Sanibel Island, Florida,
caused a lot of controversy. People who saw the shot were sure that I
added the fish later in Photoshop. One fellow even went so far as to write
a fairly long treatise showing what he thought was evidence he gained
from zooming in to the pixel level. I had witnesses (I was teaching
a group of seven people how to shoot wildlife), but he was so
convinced that he was right (and he had supporters who
would not believe this was an unedited image) that I
finally posted the sequence you will see below.

That ended the controversy.

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Great Egret Flip 0157-160 M

These shots were all taken within the same second.
They show the entire sequence, from the little downward flick
which constitutes this bird’s ‘tell’ (top left), through the upward head
movement, the opening of the jaws, and the catch at the back of the bill.
It also shows the movement of the bird’s head into the shadow. This
shadow constituted part of the ‘evidence’ of manipulation (light
on the fish was different than light on the bird). End of issue.

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Great Egret head-on M

“So... what did you think?”

I think head-on shots of long-beaked birds are comical.

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Great Egret Hunting X8261

A Great Egret searching for prey during the breeding season in December.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Wildlife Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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GreatEgret_BreedingPlumage_9168


Great Egret Breeding Plumage 9168

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Great Egret Breeding Plumage HS0455

Great Egret portraits in breeding plumage taken in three different years.

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Great Egret Breeding Plumage X8458

The first two portraits were taken in the early spring, near the end
of the breeding season. The one above was shot in December at the
beginning of the season (in three different years). At the early part of
the breeding season, Great Egrets have pale greenish-gray legs.

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Great Egret Flight X7421

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Great Egret Flight X7426

A Great Egret takes flight in front of a group of Double-Crested Cormorants and White Pelicans
at the Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge. More of the images from this flight sequence are shown below.

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Great Egret Flight X7433

A Great Egret flying low over the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

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Great Egret Flight X7432

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Great Egret Flight X7443

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Great Egret Flight X7434

A Great Egret flying low over the pond at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

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Great Egret Flight HS4772

A Great Egret flying low over the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica wetlands.
In my experience, it is fairly rare to shoot a flying Great Egret from above.

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Great Egret Flight X4592

A Great Egret in flight over the Main Canal at Bolsa Chica wetlands, with a very attractive wing position.

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Great Egret Flight X4593

This is my favorite Great Egret flight shot. I love the wing position and detail.
This is the image I use for the copyright and contact clip on the Wildlife pages.

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Great Egret Flight X4594

These were some of the most spectacular Great Egret Flight scenes I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
The Banner below leads to the Wildlife Collections page where a Gallery can be selected.

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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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Cattle Egret

Originally native to tropical Africa and Asia, the Cattle Egret has spread throughout the world
in one of the most wide-ranging expansions of any bird species. This expansion began around
the end of the 19th century and is associated with the wider domestication of cattle and horses.
They flew across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1870s to northern South America, and migrated to
the US in 1941, first breeding in Florida in 1953. They have since spread across the entire
country. They are small herons with a thick neck and bill that eat insects disturbed by the
movement of herd animals, as well as the ticks and flies that they remove from cattle.

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Cattle Egret X2860

A Cattle Egret in non-breeding plumage, taken
in late November at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

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Cattle Egret Breeding Plumage HS6314

A Cattle Egret displaying breeding plumage in July.

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Cattle Egret X2857

A Cattle Egret in non-breeding plumage searches the undergrowth at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge for insects.

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Cattle Egret X2853

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Cattle Egret X2854

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Cattle Egret Nesting with Eggs HS0495

These three images are from a group of over 100 shots taken
during the spring, when nesting occurs. Note the bluish color of the eggs.

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Cattle Egret Feeding Chicks HS0745

A Cattle Egret feeding her chicks on an overcast spring day.

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Cattle Egret and Chick HS0532 M

The Cattle Egret chick looks a lot like its dinosaur ancestors, and it certainly loves its mama...

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Images in this section are in a number of different Galleries on the Photoshelter website.
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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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Reddish Egret

Resident in coastal swamps in the Gulf States and in Central and South America,
the Reddish Egret was once hunted for its plumes and is now a threatened species.
It is estimated that there are only around 2000 breeding pairs in the US. This is another
bird that does not live in the areas where I normally shoot, so the only individuals that
I have seen were in Florida. It is a very active bird and is quite striking as well.

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Reddish Egret 0619 M

A Reddish Egret fluffs his shaggy plumes beside the Mangrove swamp on Sanibel Island.
The color of the reflected foliage off of the water is a perfect complement to this beautiful bird.

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Reddish Egret 0632

There are two morphs of the Reddish Egret. The birds on this page are
Dark Morph. There is also a White Morph, which has all white plumage,
and looks like a small version of the Great Egret but has a short bill with
a pink base and black tip, and flesh-toned lores (skin in front of the eye).
It is about the size of the Snowy Egret, but a White Morph Reddish Egret
has grayish black legs. The Snowy Egret has yellow feet and yellow lores.

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Reddish Egret 1620

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Reddish Egret 9853

A Reddish Egret in a tide pool near the Mangrove swamp on Sanibel Island.

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Reddish Egret 1626

The Reddish Egret is the rarest and least known of the North American herons. It is highly active,
foraging in saltwater marshes, swamps and tide pools along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Florida.
Reddish Egrets are occasionally seen in Southern California, but I have never encountered one.

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Reddish Egret 1483 M

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Reddish Egret 1486 M

A Reddish Egret passes by a feeding White Ibis on its way across a tide pool on Sanibel Island.

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Reddish Egret 1474

Reddish Egrets feed on small fish and crustaceans, and have interesting foraging habits,
which include spreading their wings in a canopy, creating a shaded area that attracts fish.

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Reddish Egret 9844 M

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Reddish Egret 9846 M

A Reddish Egret struts across the tidal flat beside the Mangrove swamp.

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Reddish Egret 0639 M

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Reddish Egret 0641 M

A Reddish Egret wades across the swamp and hops onto a barnacle-encrusted Mangrove to hunt.

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Reddish Egret 0643

The Reddish Egret was hunted to near-extinction in the late 1800s and early 1900s for its feathers.
They are now protected and are recovering, but there are still only 1500-2000 nesting pairs in the US.

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Reddish Egret Mangrove 1589 M

A Reddish Egret surveys the swamp on Sanibel Island from its perch on the Mangrove roots.

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Images can be found in the following Collections (Direct Links)

Birds Collections:          Egrets & Herons

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SnowyEgret


Click the Display Composite above to visit the Snowy Egret page

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Click the Display Composite above to visit the Great Blue Heron and Little Blue Heron page

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Click the Display Composite above to return to the Egrets and Herons index page

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