Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens)
When I see these beautiful birds pluck such tiny fish out of the water, it reminds me just how hard they have to work just to feed themselves.

Tags:   Bird Egrets Florida Reddish Egret Bird with prey Bird with fish hunting Bird in water Threatened Species Nikon D500

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Great Blue Heron x Great Egret (hybrid) Ardea Herodias x Ardea Alba

This is a better than 1-in-a-million bird; an incredibly rare occurrence and is believed to be a hybrid between a 5 pound Great Blue Heron and a 2 pound Great Egret. Its structure very much resembles a Great Blue Heron, but it is much smaller (about the size of the egret), is extremely pale overall, lacking head plumes and a dark crown stripe like a Great Blue Heron would have; and it does have yellow lores and dark black legs (including the bottoms of the feet) like a Great Egret would have. He's also quite a beautiful bird!

Tags:   Bird Florida hybrid Great Blue Heron x Great Egret heron egret heron x egret Ft DeSoto Nikon D500

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Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis)

There was quite a bit of shorebird "activity" on the beach yesterday. Spring is definitely here! I also noticed that a fair number of the Sandwich Terns had this pinkish tinge to them. I did a little bit of searching online to find out what causes this pink hue, but didn't really find out anything other than the fact that others have photographed this same anomaly.

Tags:   Madera Beach Florida United States Tern Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis birds mating birds breeding breeding plumage pink tern

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Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) ~Orange County, Florida

Tags:   Orlando Florida United States Egretta thula Egret Snowy Egret breeding bird in display Bird

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Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)
Dad bringing home a fish for his young ones after a successful fish adventure. It's amazing to watch the chicks eat fish that are almost as big as they are!

Tags:   Bird Black Skimmer Florida Shorebird Skimmer Rynchops niger bird in flight bird with prey bird with fish

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