{"id":2728,"date":"2011-07-08T12:28:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T18:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:01:47","slug":"friday-photos-white-morph-reddish-egret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/07\/08\/friday-photos-white-morph-reddish-egret\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Photos &#8211; White Morph Reddish Egret"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-157544 size-full\" title=\"The Dancer \u2013 White Morph of Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.jpg\" alt=\"The Dancer \u2013 White Morph of Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"662\" data-id=\"10590\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27662%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20662%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27662%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293-200x156.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293-400x312.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293-600x467.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">The Dancer \u2013 White Morph of Reddish Egret &#8211;<strong>\u00a0<\/strong> Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 250mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Reddish Egrets seem to be natural born &#8220;Dancers&#8221; when they are hunting for prey, they twirl, spin, pirouette and dip. They can look very funny, goofy and yet still be graceful.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I came across this Reddish Egret white morph while photographing with a friend at Fort De Soto&#8217;s north beach one morning and it provided us with at least half an hour of entertainment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I&#8217;ve heard that you can only get shots like this with long lenses but I don&#8217;t think that holds true in every situation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This Reddish Egret photo was taken using my Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens at only 250mm and this wasn&#8217;t much of a crop.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One of the reasons I was able to be this close to this Reddish Egret was because the birds at Fort De Soto are used to having humans around and they are less flighty because of that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Another reason is that I either sat or laid down on the beach so that my low profile was less threatening to the egret than it would have been if I had been standing up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-157548 size-full\" title=\"White Morph of Reddish Egret \u2013 a Ballet Pose, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289.jpg\" alt=\"White Morph of Reddish Egret \u2013 a Ballet Pose, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"691\" height=\"800\" data-id=\"10591\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27691%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20691%20800%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27691%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289-200x232.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289-400x463.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289-600x695.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5289.jpg 691w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 691px) 100vw, 691px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">White Morph of Reddish Egret\u00a0&#8211; a Ballet Pose\u00a0 &#8211;\u00a0 Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 250mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This white morph is in breeding plumage shown by the pink bill and the blue lores. Reddish Egrets can be found almost all year long at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendsofftdesoto.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Fort De Soto<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The only time I was really aware of their absence was after tropical storms swept through the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Reddish Egrets frequent mudflats, tidal lagoons, and along the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Watching and photographing them as they dance through the warm waters chasing prey is a spectacular sight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Their fluid dance is a mesmerizing treat for a bird photographer like myself.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/reddish-egret-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Reddish Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reddish Egrets seem to be natural born &#8220;Dancers&#8221; when they are hunting for prey, they twirl, spin, piroquette and dip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,27,25,704,89,157],"tags":[215,795,4187,743,351,4185,4077,3970,160,4188,313,4119,4186],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-identification","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-humor","category-reddish-egret","tag-bird-id","tag-dancer","tag-dancing-2","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-hunting","tag-reddish-egret","tag-shoreline","tag-wading-birds","tag-waves","tag-white-morph"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-I0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4516,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/22\/reddish-egret-hunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":0},"title":"Reddish Egret Hunting","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I lived in Florida I simply adored being able to photograph Reddish Egrets, they can be graceful or goofy looking, they twirl, dash and dance.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph Reddish Egret hunting, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9788,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/10\/13\/white-morph-reddish-egret-on-the-hunt\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":1},"title":"White Morph Reddish Egret On The Hunt","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Both the white and dark morphs of Reddish Egrets are great fun to watch as they hunt because they dance, twirl, whirl and stumble along like a \"drunken sailor\".","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph Reddish Egret on the hunt, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-goofy-mia-mcpherson-5290.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-goofy-mia-mcpherson-5290.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-goofy-mia-mcpherson-5290.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-goofy-mia-mcpherson-5290.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6917,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/27\/reddish-egret-morphs\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":2},"title":"Reddish Egret Morphs","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dancing dark morph Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dancing-mia-mcpherson-5542.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dancing-mia-mcpherson-5542.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dancing-mia-mcpherson-5542.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dancing-mia-mcpherson-5542.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41304,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/08\/24\/reddish-egret-hunting-in-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":3},"title":"Reddish Egret Hunting In The Gulf Of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this white morph Reddish Egret hunting in the Gulf of Mexico in June of 2008 and truly enjoyed observing its hunting behavior through my lens.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph Reddish Egret after missed attempt for prey, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-whhite-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-1253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-whhite-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-1253.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-whhite-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-1253.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-whhite-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-1253.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20083,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/15\/dark-and-white-morph-reddish-egrets-in-breeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":4},"title":"Dark and White Morph Reddish Egrets in Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reddish Egrets I photographed that May morning were busy hunting and paid me almost no attention as they went about their daily business of find prey.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":63221,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/25\/fun-photographing-reddish-egrets-in-florida\/","url_meta":{"origin":2728,"position":5},"title":"Fun Photographing Reddish Egrets In Florida","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret foraging near mangroves, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}