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Aves (Birds) » Ciconiiformes (Herons, Ibises & New World Vultures) » Ardeidae (Herons) » Bubulcus » Bubulcus ibis (Cattle Egrets)

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Location: Earth » Oceania » Australia » Queensland

Date: March 13, 2007

This is as close as I can get.
Could it be a Cattle Egret

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fbpw/c_egret.htm

Posted by Kell on March 14, 2008 01:20. Last updated: March 28, 2008 14:09.

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Comments

Egret
My field guide has a lot of egrets in your area that look similar in non-breeding plumage: Cattle, Intermediate, Great, and the white morph of the Eastern Reef Egret. Perhaps if you had some estimate of the size of the bird, that could help.

Cattle egrets get rust colored breeding plumage, which my Australian field guide says start as early as August and can last until May, so I would have thought I could see some if this was a cattle egret. But the sunlight may have washed it out in the photos. Or the breeding plumage may be fully gone by now. I can't say; perhaps you can find a local birder who might be able to decide.


Egret.
Quote: (Their slightly larger cousin, the Little Egret 56-65cm long, has a black bill.)
Well that rules the Little Egret out.

I did take these Pic's in a field full of cows.
But I scared the Birds away.
There were about 60 in the flock,
And this was the only one that stayed put.
What attracted me to them in the first place was more than a dozen of them were standing on the cows backs.


Cattle Egret
Mike, it has been confirmed it is a young Cattle Egret.
The Adult birds will be starting to develop their yellow /orange head plumage soon.
I see them all the time around the cows and horses but they are very timid.
I'm going to try to feed cows near my back fence and hide in my veggie patch to get a close up Pic.


Changed Taxon
Media was moved from ID Request. It's nice to have a local birder to confirm your photos (have him visit the site!). I'm sure you'll start finding birds that I can't ID very easily with my Australian field guide. :)


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