The cattle egrets (formerly genus Bubulcus) are a cosmopolitan clade of herons (family Ardeidae) in the genus Ardea found in the tropics, subtropics, warm temperate, and increasingly in cooler temperate zones. As currently treated, the clade contains two species, the western cattle egret and the eastern cattle egret, although some authorities (particularly in the past) regarded them as a single species. Despite the similarities in plumage to the egrets of the genus Egretta, they have recently been found to be genetically embedded within the genus Ardea, and are now included there. Originally native to parts of Asia, Africa, and southernmost Europe, the two species have undergone rapid expansion in their distribution and have successfully colonised much of the rest of the world in the last century.

They are white birds adorned with buff plumes in the breeding season. They nest in colonies, usually near bodies of water and often with other wading birds. The nest is a platform of sticks in trees or shrubs. Cattle egrets exploit drier and open habitats more than other heron species. Their feeding habitats include seasonally inundated grasslands, pastures, farmlands, wetlands, and rice paddies. They often accompany cattle or other large mammals, catching insect and small vertebrate prey disturbed by these animals. Some populations are migratory and others show postbreeding dispersal.

Adult cattle egrets have few predators, but birds or mammals may raid their nests, and chicks may be lost to starvation, calcium deficiency, or disturbance from other large birds. Cattle egrets maintain a special relationship with cattle, which extends to other large grazing mammals; increased human livestock farming is believed to be a major cause of their suddenly expanded range. Cattle egrets remove ticks and flies from cattle and consume them. This benefits both organisms, but it has been implicated in the spread of tick-borne animal diseases.

Taxonomy

Before the description of the Bubulcus by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1855, The epithet coromanda refers to the Coromandel Coast of India.

Description

The cattle egrets are stocky herons with a wingspan of ; they are long, and weigh .

The positioning of their eyes allows for binocular vision during feeding,

The western cattle egret first arrived in North America in 1941 (these early sightings were originally dismissed as escapees), bred in Florida in 1953, and spread rapidly, breeding for the first time in Canada in 1962. Since 1948, western cattle egret has been permanently resident in Israel; prior to 1948, it was only a winter visitor.

Cattle egrets are an occurring traditional motif in fishing boats among fishermen of the Malay Peninsula east coast who believed them as a symbol of good luck and fortune.

Cattle egrets are popular birds with cattle ranchers for their perceived role as a biocontrol of cattle parasites such as ticks and flies.

  • Ageing and sexing (PDF) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
  • Cattle Egret - The Atlas of Southern African Birds