Cattle Egret

Bubulcus ibis

Order CICONIIFORMES - Family ARDEIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A small white heron of pastures and roadsides, the Cattle Egret is more at home foraging in grass than in water. It follows cattle, horses, and tractors to catch the insects they stir up.

Cool Facts

• The Cattle Egret is native to Africa and Asia, and only reached the Americas in the late 19th century. It was first found in northeastern South America in 1877, having probably arrived there from Africa. It reached the United States in 1941, and started nesting by 1953. In the next 50 years it became one of the most abundant of the North American herons. It has occurred all the way to Alaska and Newfoundland, and has bred in nearly all states.

• The Cattle Egret is an opportunistic feeder, and will follow large animals or machines to catch insects they stir up. It also is attracted by smoke from a large fire. Egrets come from long distances to catch insects trying to escape the fire.

• The Cattle Egret occasionally adds birds to its diet. At Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida, migrating Cattle Egrets land on the large green lawn inside the fort, probably hoping for some nice grasshoppers. Because no insects are there to be had, the egrets try to catch the migrating warblers that also have stopped on the tiny island.

Description

• Size: 46-56 cm (18-22 in)
• Wingspan: 88-96 cm (35-38 in)
• Weight: 270-512 g (9.53-18.07 ounces)

• Medium-sized all-white heron.
• Sturdy yellow bill.
• Dark legs and feet.
• Swollen throat.
• Rather short, thick neck for a heron.

• Sits in hunched posture.
• Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: White overall, with long, buffy reddish feathers on crown, chest, and back. Legs yellow-green, eyes dark yellow. In brief high breeding condition, bill, legs, and eyes bright red; lores purple-pink.
• Nonbreeding (Definitive) Plumage: Feathers all white; shorter orangish plumes on head, chest, and back. Legs dark green, appearing black. Bill, lores, and eyes yellow.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar.

Immature

Immature entirely white without plumes. Bill starts out dark and gradually becomes yellow.

Similar Species

• Snowy Egret is slimmer, has black bill, and yellow feet.
• The white juvenile of the Little Blue Heron has greenish legs, and a dark bill with a bluish base.
• Great Egret also has dark legs and a yellow bill, but is much taller and longer necked.

Sound

Quiet away from breeding colony. Quiet, throaty "rick-rack."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Common in southeastern United States. Found throughout United States and southern Canada, southward throughout Central and South America. Also in southern Europe, Africa, tropical Asia, and Australia. Introduced to Hawaii.

Winter Range

Winters in southern California, coastal Texas, Florida, and southward. Note the winter range on the range map is also titled the non-breeding range. Cattle Egrets disperse across much of the United States after nesting, with the range contracting during the winter months.

Habitat

• Breeds in colonies with other herons on islands, isolated woods, and swamps.
• Found foraging in many habitats, terrestrial and aquatic, such as ponds, cattle pasture, roadsides, farmland, dumps, parks, sports fields, and lawns.

Food

Grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, flies, frogs, and moths.

Behavior

Foraging

Follows and rides large mammals and catches insects they stir up. Forages in flocks.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Shallow, bowl-shaped nest of sticks. Placed in trees and shrubs in colonies with other herons.

Egg Description

Light sky blue.

Clutch Size

1-9 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless, covered in down.

Conservation Status

May still be expanding breeding range, but populations in some areas declining.

Other Names

Héron garde-boeufs (French)
Depulgabuey, Garrapatosa, Garrapatera, Garza de ganado, Garza de vaquèra, Garcita de ganado, Garcilla garrapatera, Garcilla bueyera (Spanish)
Buff-backed Heron (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Telfair, R. C. II. 1994. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis). In The Birds of North America, No. 113 (A. Poole, and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.