This photo shows one male teaching a lesson to another male by driving him away. I took this shot on April 5 in High Island, Texas, about three weeks into the breeding season. Beginning in mid-March, great egrets began congregating at Smith Oaks. Then they begin their mating rituals – neck stretching, posturing, fighting and nest building. It’s a contest worthy of any singles bar. By week three, most males and females have paired. Options are running low for unpaired males so they try to steal the affections of females that have already paired when their mates are away looking for food to sticks to build the nest. When the male (left) returned to this nest, he found such an interloper and chased him away. Egrets have powerful, sharp beaks that they sometimes use to peck at each other when angry. The interloper was no match for a furious egret and quickly fled. Taken with the Nikon D4 and 800mm f5.6 Nikkor.
