Bird of the Week

This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the western cattle egret. Original ancestors of this egret lived in Africa. In North America, the cattle egret was first reported in Florida in 1941 and documented breeding there by 1953. In less than 15 years, its breeding range had expanded as far north as Canada. Today, breeding has been confirmed in pockets in almost all of the United States. Two years ago, the cattle egret species was split into the geographically separated western type, which lives in Africa, western Asia, southern Europe and the Americas, and the eastern type, which lives in eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Unlike other herons and egrets, which are usually associated with water, this small tropical heron spends most of its time in fields. It is known to follow large animals or farm equipment and eat the invertebrates that they stir up. Its common name here is derived from its association with cattle. In other parts of the world they are known by the animals they associate with and are called elephant birds, and rhinoceros and hippopotamus egrets. Part of their success is attributed to their broad diet. They eat insects, other invertebrates, fish, frogs, small mammals and birds. They will fly toward smoke to catch the insects fleeing fire. They forage alone or in large, loose flocks. These egrets have shown an aptitude for dispersing to new areas and, after breeding, vagrants range widely. In addition to native grasslands, they will feed in fields, on lawns, in parks and at the edges of airport runways. They can become a nuisance when they build their large, noisy, smelly colonies in populated areas. These all-white herons with yellow legs and a short, yellow bill develop golden plumes on the head, neck, chest and back in breeding season. For a short period, their bills and legs turn bright red to signal their readiness to mate. They are smaller and more compact than the other white herons that stop here. Western cattle egrets are highly migratory. We have the chance to see them in spring in small numbers when they stop on their journeys between southern winter areas and summer breeding territories. For information on events, visit www.weminucheaudubon.org and www.facebook.com/weminucheaudubon/.