Egretta rufescens
Silhouette: Amanda Kuhlman · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The reddish egret (Egretta rufescens) is a medium-sized heron that is a resident breeder in Central America, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast of the United States (primarily Texas), and Mexico. The egret is known for its unusual foraging behavior compared to other herons as well as its association with mud flats, its habitat of choice.
In the past, this bird was a victim of the plume trade and is North America's "rarest and least studied ardeid." The reddish egret was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the herons, cranes and egrets in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea rufescens. Gmelin based his description on that of the English ornithologist John Latham who in 1785 had included the species in his multi-volume A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had in turn based his own description on the "L'Aigrette rousse, de la Louisiane" that the French polymath Comte de Buffon had described and illustrated in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The reddish egret is now placed with 12 other species in the genus Egretta that... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 6 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Reddish Egret sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 5,140 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 25th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March, July and December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Reddish Egret in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 30% in August to October, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Reddish Egret sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Reddish Egret sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 50%) and El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Egretta
The closest relatives of the Reddish Egret that you can see in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (genus Egretta, Small Egrets and Herons) are Snowy Egret (about 70%), Little Blue Heron (about 70%) and Tricolored Heron (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Reddish Egret is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (5,140 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
