Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret: Medium, stocky egret with white body and pale orange-brown patches on head, neck and back. Eyes, bill and legs are orange. This is the only white egret with both a yellow bill and yellow legs. Feeds primarily on insects disturbed by livestock. Direct flight on quick steady wing beats.

● Song: "rick-rack"

● Foraging & Feeding: Cattle Egret: Eats mostly grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, flies, frogs, and moths. Commonly associates with livestock or large wild game, feeding on insects disturbed by grazing; also follows tractors in fields. Forages in small groups or singly, walking in a steady strut, darting forward and stabbing quickly with bill to catch prey.

● Breeding & nesting: Cattle Egret: One to nine pale blue or blue green eggs are laid in a nest made of sticks and vegetation; nests in colonies and sometimes reuses an old nest; often steals materials from neighbors. Eggs are incubated for approximately 24 days by both parents.

● Similar species: Cattle Egret: Great Egret and white phase Great Blue Heron are much larger. Snowy Egret and immature Little Blue Heron have dark or bi-colored bills.

Flight Pattern