Reddish Egret

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 Reddish Egret 

The reddish egret belongs to the Ardeidae family. 

The Reddish egret is one of the more active of the herons. The adults are  either white with grey legs or dark with red feathers and the young are grey and brown with a black bill. 

 They are three feet in height and weigh around four hundred and fifty grams. Their bills are long and pointed with a pink tint and black end. Their legs are black and long. Their wingspans are forty nine inches. The adults have a plumage which looks like a mane. They live for around twelve years.

They are active dawn and dusk, during hunting the birds fly near to the water, which causes a shadow on the water making it easier to see and catch the fish. They do a canopy dance to help catch the fish whilst on the ground. They also fed on insects, crustaceans and frogs. Their longs legs help them to run fast to catch prey and to to run away from predators, they have great vision to catch prey and run from predators. 

The adults are silent most of the time but they do make a croaking sound to make their territory and to attract the females. Flying is a constant flap but prey is spotted they dart towards it. 

They are found near red and black mangroves, salt water and brackish water. 

The nests are built from twigs and leaves and placed in the mangroves, they will construct the nests in groups with other nesting herons. Courtship consists of nodding movements from the head, flying in circles and making a lot of noise, the males plump up their feather to make themselves look bigger and more impressive to the females. The female lays around five eggs and both parents take parental control, the eggs are incubated for twenty six days. Once hatched it takes forty five days until the chicks are ready to fly. 

Banerjee, P. (2015). Reddish Egret. [online] Animalspot.net. Available at: http://www.animalspot.net/reddish-egret.html [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015].