Cattle Egret?

I was amazed to see all this orange in this bird as I have never seen one quite this color. I believe it is a cattle egret. Has anyone seen it before? Almost thought it was like the little blue heron how it is speckled before all blue

Here is the back end

Cheryl

It is a cattle egret, and Sibley's lists this plumage variation as "rare aberrant", though I did see this quite often in the Port Richey area.

The Cattle Egret is one of the more spectacularly successful Eurasian immigrants. BNA reports that the uncommon plumage you've captured is"an orange-buff (“peach-colored”) plumage similar to that of the Asiatic subspecies."

Thanks Lia and Jim. That was very helpful and Lia in my five years of shooting in Port Richey I've never seen this before. Pretty cool

Wow, with all my years breeding horses, I've NEVER seen a cattle egret like that before!

Do they ever come to the TX Gulf Coast?

Lucy

It is definitely a male Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) in breeding plumage, but the colour is really strange. I thought first that it is because of too much iron in water. Didn't know know before that such aberration exists. Very intersting! Thanks for sharing!

I have seen thousands upon thousands of cattle egrets and have never seen this color variant. Very cool.