Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens

Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens dickeyi. Photograph taken within the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California, April 2017. Photograph courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens dickeyi. Photographs taken with the rocky shoreline of the greater Bahía de los Ángeles area, Baja California, January 2022. Photographs courtesy of George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles. Identifications courtesy of Mary & George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles.

Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens dickeyi. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, January 2019. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens dickeyi. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, December 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens rufescens. Birds photographed on the beach in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, March 2021. Photographs and identification courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.

The Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens dickeyi and Egretta rufescens rufescens, are the two subspecies of the Reddish Egret, both of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Ardeidae Family of Herons, Egrets and Bitterns, which has sixty-eight members placed in eighteen genera, and one of twelve members of the Egretta Genus. They are known in Mexico as garceta rojiza and Garza rojiza. The Reddish Egret is North America’s rarest and least studied ardeid. Note: the Reddish Egret has dimorphic plumage, a dark morph and a white morph, however the white morph species is not found in Mexico and is not included within this presentation.

The Reddish Egret is a medium-sized heron. The sexes are similar in appearance with the males being slightly larger than the females. The Dark Morph as a uniform slate gray body, transitioning to light gray on their underparts, with a reddish head and neck. Their crown, nape, neck and upper breast have shaggy lanceolate plumes. Their long slender bill is bicolored, pink at the base with the distal half being black, their iris is white to light yellow, their legs are black in front and blue on the sides turning to brilliant blue when breeding, and their feet are black. They have a long slender neck.

They are visual, diurnal feeders that forage in shallow coastal flats, ponds and lagoons and primarily consume fish, frogs and tadpoles. They are partial migrators with some birds from some locations known to make southernly migrations during the winter months. They colonize in mangrove habitats, desert scrub, coastal sage scrub, and bare ground. They rarely occur in inland freshwater habitats. They have life spans of up to twelve years.

The Reddish Egret is found in all Mexican coastal areas in both fresh water and saltwater habitats of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. The dickeyi subspecies is found on the Baja California Peninsula and around the Gulf of California south to Oaxaca and Chiapas. The rufescens subspecies is found in Tamaulipas and Veracruz, along the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula south to Belize.

The Dark-morph Reddish Egrets may be confused with the Little Blue Heron, Egretta caerulea  and the Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor, but they are larger and taller in stature and more prone to very active, animated, and erratic foraging behavior.

From a conservation perspective the Reddish Egret is currently considered to be NEAR-THREATENED which is attributed to loss of habitat due to coastal development across the species’ range. They were extirpated from Florida, Louisiana and Texas by plume hunters from 1880 to 1912, but have made a modest recovery. In Mexico they are considered to be a species of Special Concern. They are targeted by subsistence hunters for human consumption of their meat and eggs and also used as a crab bait. They are covered by the 1937 Migratory Bird Treaty Act between Mexico and the United States. They are currently the focus of several conservation efforts that have focused on habitat restorations.