Reddish Egret at Goleta Slough

The Reddish Egret is a medium-sized heron, with dull red tones over gray. In this photo, the immature bird appears rather serene and even stately; not the stature of the Great Blue Heron, and only slightly smaller than the Great Egret.

It's when it's feeding that this bird is so remarkable, and worth the 100 miles from Los Osos to Santa Barbara.

I've heard this action referred to as a 'bird ballet'.

 

I think of it more as a "Feed-Dance-Frenzy"

As the bird runs,

 

hop-flies,

 

spins,

 

and generally shows off.

I'm of a mind that this "spread-wing" action allows the egret to better see and locate the small shiny fish it seeks.

The undersides of the wings are very light-colored and reflect light back to the water's surface. Even a tiny bit more reflectivity would make these small shiny fish sparkle even more.

 

And the Reddish Egret was rather successful, too - even though this bird was way out of it' natural range, normally found surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, Greater Antilles, Gulf of California and the Pacific and Gulf coasts of Mexico.

 

 Click on any photo to see larger images of all photos in this post.