This is an example of cooperative feeding. The Ibis feed by touch and the egret by sight. So the egret benefits by following the ibis and watching.
Roseate Spoonbill
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/31/09
The Roseate Spoon is naturally the red and pink you see in this picture, unlike the American Flamingo whose reddish color partly depends on the carotenoid pigment in the food they eat.
Reddish Egret
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/31/08
Roseate Spoonbill
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/22/06
Snowy Egret
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/22/06
Pileated Woodpecker
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/24/05
Anhinga
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/23/06
Anhinga
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/23/06
Osprey
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/22/08
White Pelican
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/29/08
Brown Pelican
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/22/09
White Pelican
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/24/11
White Pelicans fish in groups as they are doing here. The one with its bill in the air is swallowing a fish.
Great Egret
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/24/11
Brown Pelican
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/25/11
Diving into a school of fish is one of the feeding techniques used by the Brown Pelican.
The picture was taken in a beautiful early morning sky.
Killdeer
Ding Darling NWR, FL
2/3/13
Red-breasted Merganser
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/26/14
Green Heron
Ding Darling NWR, FL
1/28/14
This Green Heron has just caught a small fish which is visible in the tip of its bill. Green Herons are stealth hunters often perching on a low branch extending over the water.