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Conservation and Management
Effects Of Human Activity
Shooting, Trapping, And Egging
This species not known specifically as resource for subsistence hunting and egging, but these activities probably continue in West Indies (Paul 1991). Audubon (1843: 142) wrote that eggs “. . . afford excellent eating.”
Plume-hunting in period 1880–1912 greatly reduced numbers of all herons and may have extirpated Reddish Egret from Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. In 1886, back-plumes from a single individual of this species were valued at 40 cents (Scott 1887). See Distribution: historical changes, and Demography and populations: population status, above.
Pesticides And Other Contaminants/Toxins
Little specific information. Residues of DDT family compounds 2.52 ppm wet weight ± 0.60 SE (n = 10) in eggs from Texas in 1970 (King et al. 1978).
Ingestion Of Plastics, Lead, Etc
No information.
Collisions With Stationary/Moving Structure Or Objects
No information.
Fishing Nets
Entanglement with monofilament fishing lines, hooks, and nets potential mortality factor, but no information specific to this species available.
Degradation Of Habitat
Coastal development in Florida has decreased quantity and quality of suitable habitat for this species.
Disturbance At Nest And Roost Sites
Little information. Presence of humans near colonies may cause adults to leave or abandon nests, leaving eggs or young unprotected from potential predation and susceptible to exposure. Some “urban” colonies tolerant of regular low-level aircraft traffic; other, more isolated colonies very wary.
Direct Human/Research Impacts
No information.
Management
Conservation Status
Not listed.
Measures Proposed And Taken
No specific protection in Canada and the U.S. other than Migratory Bird Convention Act and Migratory Bird and Game Management Treaty between Mexico and U.S. (1937).
Effectiveness Of Measures
Primarily unknown or untested.
Lowther, Peter E. and Richard T. Paul. 2002. Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/633
