During a recent family vacation, I found myself face-to-face with the long-staying hybrid "heron" at Fort de Soto, Florida... I had forgotten the occurrence details, but pretty much as soon as I saw it, some memories came back about a Great Blue Heron (GBHE) x Great Egret (GREG) hybrid and it appeared to be a match. Except for the fact that it "looked" a whole heck of a lot like a Reddish Egret (REEG)... Armed with an iPhone, I went to work:
Structurally the bird appeared to be slightly smaller than nearby GREG, with rather powerful looking black legs (REEG-powerful). The bill seemed relatively small/sharp, not unlike a REEG... The GISS was remarkably like REEG, even at rest... On one brief occasion there was a tussle between the pier-herons, and the hybrid rapidly and skillfully "ran" out of the way REEG-style (body at 90 degrees, wide strides in the run without any awkwardness)...
Below are a few "GISS" photos showing the smaller-size compared to GBHE and general REEG-ness...
Plumage-wise, I couldn't pull out any solid GBHE features, and generally saw a mix of GREG features: - black legs
- yellow lores
And REEG features:
- black(ish) bill
- uniform/plain grayish plumage
I would assume the general "washed-out" appearance is due to the GREG influence. I would also note a general lack of any apparently GBHE influence, lacking contrasting primaries/secondaries, any rusty leggings, and black/white contrast on the head or belly, etc. This also comes with the benefit of knowing the beast was born in 2016, so it really should be showing these features by now if GBHE were involved...
Researching this individual (which I'm assuming all account for the same individual at the Fort de Soto pier) was pretty fun as well (and thankfully other people have much better photos than I...)... I would say that there are more than one individual lurking in the general area however; check out the bill pattern between these two individuals (one day apart): https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/191590481#_ga=2.197052268.1540230822.1578609980-956974513.1520811943
The northshore park bird seems to have more of a GREG-like structure, but the bill pattern is closer to REEG (dark tipped) than the Fort de Soto bird... Pure speculation on my part, but I would NOT be surprised at all if these two shared a nest in 2016...
Further research indicated that I'm not the first person to notice the REEG-ness of these hybrids:
Link to a "buy my things" photography blog here
As someone who loves a good hybrid bird - I was darn excited to get excellent views of this bird and the associated research/photo scanning afterwards. My only concern now is what the world thinks, and if/how to convince them to add REEGxGREG as an option in ebird?!