The Cattle Egret is a widespread bird known for its close relationship with large grazing animals. This adaptable species is often seen alongside livestock in open environments, particularly agricultural areas, where it employs a unique feeding strategy.
Identifying Features
The Cattle Egret is a compact heron, measuring 18 to 22 inches in length with a wingspan of about three feet. Non-breeding adults and juveniles have primarily white plumage, a short, thick neck, and a sturdy bill. The bill is yellow in non-breeding adults and dark in younger birds.
During the breeding season, the egret changes, developing distinctive buffy or orange-buff plumes on its head, chest, and back. Its bill, legs, and irises also become vibrant red or orange-red. These seasonal color shifts help distinguish the Cattle Egret from other white wading birds.
Where Cattle Egrets Live
The Cattle Egret originated in southern Spain, Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa, and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. Over the last century, it has undergone one of the most significant natural expansions of any bird species, establishing itself across the Americas, Australasia, and other parts of the world.
These birds prefer drier, open habitats compared to many other heron species. They are commonly found in seasonally flooded grasslands, pastures, agricultural fields, and rice paddies. They also thrive in wetlands and urban areas, particularly where large animals are present.
Their Special Feeding Strategy
Cattle Egrets are known for their feeding association with large grazing animals, such as cattle, horses, and elephants. They walk alongside these animals, or occasionally perch on their backs. This behavior allows the egrets to capture insects and other small prey disturbed by the grazers’ movements through vegetation.
This feeding method increases the egrets’ foraging success, making them more efficient at finding food than when foraging alone. Studies indicate their efficiency can be 3.6 to 5.2 times higher when associated with livestock. While this relationship is often considered commensalism, benefiting the egret without affecting the grazer, it can sometimes be mutualistic if the egret consumes ticks or flies directly from the animal. Cattle Egrets are also opportunistic foragers, frequently following farm machinery like tractors to catch disturbed prey.
What They Eat and How They Reproduce
The Cattle Egret’s diet primarily consists of insects, including grasshoppers, crickets, flies, beetles, moths, and spiders. They also consume other small creatures like frogs, fish, crayfish, small snakes, lizards, earthworms, and small mammals.
Cattle Egrets nest in colonies, often near water in trees or shrubs. These colonies are sometimes shared with other waterbird species. Both parents contribute to nest construction; the male brings sticks, and the female arranges them into a platform. Females usually lay three to five pale blue or light green eggs, though clutch sizes range from one to nine. Both parents share incubation duties, lasting 21 to 26 days. Parental care continues after hatching, with adults feeding chicks until they fledge around 30 days and become independent at about 45 days. The breeding season varies geographically, occurring from April to October in North America and starting with the monsoons in May in India.