This bird has been coming regularly every winter to the Imperial Beach sports park in the San Diego, Ca area for several years now. We had tried four or five times over three years to get the bird, but no luck. (We live in No. Calif. so it's over 400 mi. down to IB - last town on I-5 before Tiajuana, Mexico.) Finally, last year on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we got the bird. We had birded around the complex, the apartments (where Yellow-crowned Night-herons nest each year) & Tiajuana Slough NWR just one block away. We were walking back to our car parked in the sports complex to leave when I spotted a bright red bird in a bare tree about 75 yds. away. There it was!
Rebel XT, 300mm f/4 IS telephoto & 1.4 extender. ISO 400, f/8, 1/1600 in full sun.