Photo Study Of A Cattle Egret In Breeding Plumage At Cape May, April 10th, 2010

 We went today to Cape May to try and find the Brown-headed Nuthatch that was reported earlier this week. While we were unsuccessful locating the Nuthatch, we did find three Cattle Egrets in the Winery
 fields adjacent to the Beanery. We were able to get very close to the birds and using the car as a blind, were actually successful in photographing one of the Egrets who just happened to be in full breeding  plumage.

The Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) is a small white heron of pastures and roadsides. It has a wingspan of 35-38 inches, a length of 18-22 inches and weighs between 9 1/2 and 18 ounces. The Cattle Egret is more at home foraging in grass than in water.   It follows cattle, horses, and tractors to catch the insects they stir up. It was originally native to parts of Southern Spain and Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. Towards the end of the 19th century, it began expanding its range into southern Africa, first breeding in the Cape Province in 1908.   Cattle Egrets were first sighted in the Americas on the boundary of Guiana and Suriname in 1877, having apparently flown across the Atlantic Ocean.   It was not until the 1930s that the species is thought to have become established in that area. The 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. It is now commonly seen as far west as California. (Cornell BNA; Wikpedia)

To see a larger image of one of the birds below, please click on either the thumbnails or captions...thanks!

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