Recently I posted images of a Tricolored Heron and a Black-bellied Plover where I wrote that I enjoyed images that include habitat, the same could be said about this photo of a Reddish Egret hunting on the shoreline of the Gulf Coast.
Today I wanted to share another example of close up and full body images of another one of my favorite birds; the Reddish Egret.
The dark morph Ferruginous Hawk above had just lifted off from a power pole when I photographed it with a partly cloudy sky in the background.
Red-tailed Hawks have the most variable plumages of North American hawks but Swainson's Hawks are also pretty variable, there are light morphs, intermediate morphs and dark morphs.
I haven't had many opportunities to photograph the Harlan's subspecies of the Red-tailed Hawk so I was thrilled yesterday when I spotted a juvenile dark morph Harlan's Hawk feeding on a dead American Coot on the bank of a creek.
These two Reddish Egrets; a dark and a white morph, were photographed on the same day at Fort De Soto's north beach in May of 2009 and both of them were showing signs of being in breeding plumage.
Just a very simple image today of a Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) flying over some sand dunes.
This adult Reddish Egret was going into breeding plumage, it has the pink and black bi-colored bill and the lores are turning bluish purple.
I photographed this Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) in October of 2008 at Fort De Soto's north beach.
While I lived in Florida I took thousands (and thousands) of images of Reddish Egrets and I am very glad that I did because they are rarities in Utah, where I now live.