"Native to Africa, Asia and southern Europe, the stocky little white herons first appeared in Surinam in the late 1870's ... The first documented record for North America was a specimen collected in Massachusetts in 1952 ... The first confirmed sighting [in Texas] was on Mustang Island in November 1955 ..." This is a male. This is a female. Photo taken with a Nikon D90, using a Nikon 400mm, f/5.6 micro, manual focus lens. April 29, 2011.