Family: Ardeidae.
Status: No special status.
Size: Length
19 to 21 in., weight 10 to 14 oz, wingspan 3 ft.
Diet: Carnivore.
Characteristics: Social.
Area: North
America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe.
Offspring: 3 to 5 pale blue eggs.
Trivia:
· This bird is sometimes called the buff-backed heron.
· Some ranchers rely more on cattle egrets for fly control than pesticides.
· There are more cattle egrets in North America than all other egrets and herons combined.
· Cattle egrets spend less time near water than other egrets do.
Cattle egrets are social birds that live in colonies of several hundred birds. They can be found nesting not only with egrets, but also with other bird species. Ranchers and farmers are especially fond of these egrets, because they are usually found near cattle. The birds will sit on the backs of cattle and as the large animals graze, they stir up insects that live in the grass such as grasshoppers—one of the cattle egrets’ favourite foods. It’s also believed that they eat flies and ticks from the backs of the cattle. The cattle egret’s name in Arabic, Abu Qerdan, means “Father of Ticks” and in North America, it’s sometimes called Tick Bird or Tick Heron. In Africa and Asia, they can be found with large grazing animals such as elephants, buffalo and zebras. Cattle egrets also eat termites, spiders, moths, crickets, beetles, dragonflies, toads and frogs. Because of their long necks and round backs, these birds look as if they’re hunched over, even when standing up straight. They’re white birds, with orange-yellow bills and legs, but during breeding season, the feathers on their heads and backs become an orange-red.
Originally found in the grasslands of Africa, Asia and Europe, cattle egrets expanded to South America in the late 1800s. It’s not known precisely how they arrived, but it’s believed they flew across the Atlantic. Over the years, as South American rainforests began to disappear due to human development, the cattle egret spread northward in the mid-1900s and can now be found in 43 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces. They tend to live in areas that combine grasslands with water, such as marshes, lakes and swamps.
Cattle egrets form monogamous twosomes for the length of a mating season. The male gathers twigs, reeds and branches and brings them back to the female, who constructs a nest six to twelve feet above the ground in a tree. One tree may hold many nests, as these birds are very social and like to congregate. Mating takes place in the nest once it is completed. The female lays the eggs in intervals, with as much as two days passing between each egg. The male and female take turns incubating the eggs, keeping them warm at night by sitting on them, and cooling them during hot days by providing shade with their wings. The first egg hatches in three weeks, and the rest will hatch over the next week. Two to three weeks after hatching, the chicks can climb from the nest and go exploring, but remain nearby, as they still rely on their parents for food. By the time they’re two months old, they can fly and obtain their own food. The maximum lifespan of a cattle egret is believed to reach 20 years.