Issued from the woods of the Loess Hills a few miles east of
NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI, USA April 29, 2012 |CATTLE EGRETS AMONG
CATTLE As in Mexico, around here if you pass by a pasture you're
likely to see Cattle Egrets standing among or on the cows, as
shown at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/12/120429eg.jpg. Cattle
Egrets in their breeding plumage, like the ones in the picture,
can be distinguished from other white egrets and herons by the
patches of light orange-brown on their crests and chests.
Nonbreeding Cattle Egrets can be all white, and then their
relatively thick, yellow beaks and thicker, shorter necks
separate them from similar-sized, white herons and egrets found
here, such as Snowy Egrets and juvenile Little Blue Herons. I
remember the first time Cattle Egrets were spotted in the rural
part of western Kentucky where I grew up, possibly in 1963.
Their appearance was so unusual that a farmer not particularly
interested in Nature called my parents and said that a whole
flock of big white birds had appe