{"id":63221,"date":"2020-01-25T05:04:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T12:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=63221"},"modified":"2025-09-23T07:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:23:12","slug":"fun-photographing-reddish-egrets-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/25\/fun-photographing-reddish-egrets-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Photographing Reddish Egrets In Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ReddishReddish Egret foraging near mangroves \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 220mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m trying to finally finish up moving my photo galleries from the old program I used to have them on my web site and the only birds I have left now are Reddish Egrets. I’ve finished processing the images and I thought that today I would share a few.<\/p>\n

All of these photos were taken at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida.<\/p>\n

I remember well the day I photographed this dark morph Reddish Egret foraging near some mangroves because the wind coming in off of the Gulf of Mexico kept me cool and the egret was very active in the waves.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite morph Reddish Egret in flight over the Gulf of Mexico \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 135mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

White morph Reddish Egrets are far less common than dark morphs are in Florida so whenever I had a chance to take images of them I jumped at the opportunity.<\/p>\n

I’d photographed this white morph for quite some time before it lifted off and flew away with a pastel blue sky behind it.<\/p>\n

\"ReddishReddish Egret in flight with nesting materials \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Reddish Egrets nested near Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach and though I never found their nests I did get to see them gathering nesting materials and flying off with them.<\/p>\n

I liked how this Reddish Egret flew past me over the sandy beach in front of the dunes and how its shadow was on the sand.<\/p>\n

\"CallingCalling white morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 220mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

There were times the Reddish Egrets paid little attention to me as they foraged, preened and dances around in the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

This white morph was calling out when I photographed it because another wading bird had landed nearby.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Reddish Egret with prey in a calm lagoon \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/750, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 240mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Photographing the Reddish Egrets in the calm waters of the lagoons at Fort De Soto’s north beach was a joy to me.<\/p>\n

I could get down low in the water and the birds would dance around me while they chased prey. Sometimes I’d get lucky when they caught fish and get images of them before they swallowed the prey.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Reddish Egret showing Wing-Flicking feeding behavior \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 155mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

And through my view finder I would get to watch the Reddish Egrets dance, twirl, and give chase to their prey.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite morph Reddish Egret and Canopy-Feeding pose \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 180mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Or use the Canopy-feeding technique, also called the umbrella pose, where they would use their wings to create a shadow over the water.<\/p>\n

Small fish would seek out the shade and the egrets would gobble them up.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Reddish Egret walking in front of sand dunes \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/640, +0.3 EV, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t unusual for me to see Reddish Egrets walk from the lagoons to the Gulf of Mexico across the sandy beach. Sometimes I was even able to photograph them with the dunes behind them.<\/p>\n

\"DarkDark morph Reddish Egret portrait \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was never able to take a portrait of the white morph Reddish Egrets I did have the opportunity to do so with a dark morph Reddish Egret one morning.<\/p>\n

I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets<\/span><\/a> when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach. It was a joy!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Reddish Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,157],"tags":[4004,4039,4053,4072,853,4142,4530,6214,743,351,4185,4228,4432,4052,4122,4136,4077,3997,4258,440,4246,8300,4046,4106,160,4017,4235,1994,8450,313,4236,4186,8449],"class_list":["post-63221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-reddish-egret","tag-adult","tag-beach","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-calling","tag-canopy-feeding","tag-close-up","tag-dark-morph","tag-dunes","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-feeding-behavior","tag-fish","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-foraging","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-lagoon","tag-mangroves","tag-nesting-materials","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-photographing","tag-portrait","tag-prey","tag-reddish-egret","tag-sand","tag-sand-dunes","tag-shadow","tag-umbrella-pose","tag-wading-birds","tag-walking","tag-white-morph","tag-wing-flicking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-grH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15214,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/15\/reddish-egrets-wading-birds-that-delight\/","url_meta":{"origin":63221,"position":0},"title":"Reddish Egrets – Wading Birds That Delight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reddish Egret is one of my favorite wading birds. 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