McEgret's - The Cattle Egret

There are certain birds that you can say with certainty exactly where you will find them. As their name suggests, where there are cattle there are Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis). Spot a roadside mower or a tractor in a field and there will be Cattle Egret and where there is smoke in the grasslands, there will be Cattle Egret. Much to my surprise, after departing a well-known fast food chain drive-thru, I discovered that the habitat of this bird can be extended to here as well.

Cattle Egret found their way to the New World from Africa sometime in the late 19^th century and flapped and grazed their way north into the US by the mid 20^th century. They have a distinctive head bob that makes them appear to strut like a chicken. In addition to the bovine company they keep and their amusing gait, adult Cattle Egret are easily identified by the colorful plumage on their chest and cap that has the appearance of lightly toasted marshmallow.

The habit of following in the wake of cattle, mowers, tractors or wildfires tremendously assists the birds as they forage for insects. As they are stirred up by each, the egrets take advantage of the chaos in the insect world. While most birds are escaping a wildfire, the Cattle Egret will swoop in soon after and enjoy the BBQ.

When the egrets are full or have tired of walking the tall grass prairies, they hitch a ride and go cattle surfing. The grazing goliaths seemingly ignore one bird on their back but a second bird is the start of a party and a tail slap rectifies the situation.

I don’t make a habit of eating anything that comes from a drive-thru nor do I use Photoshop for any of my Audubon Guides photos, but in this instance, for my amusement and to avoid commercial endorsement I have touched it up a bit.  

Why was the Egret in the drive-thru? I hope it wasn’t looking for its surfing partner. 

Cow Surfin'

Surfing requires balance, patience and lack of fear. You're going to wipe out and when you do you have to paddle back out and catch the next wave. I have no idea what I'm talking about since I've never really surfed. But you get an idea watching cattle egrets riding the bovine wave across the saw grass prairies in the Everglades.

Yeah - there's cows in the Everglades.

I can't vouch for surfers, but I'd guess riding the cow is just as tough, if not tougher. You have no idea where the cow's going and they have a mean whip for a tail. While hiking out in the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest just to the southwest of Lake Okeechobee we watched a small herd tromping through the marsh, seemingly ambivalent to the Cattle Egrets riding their spine. The cow strolled through the grass and the birds rode the undulations as if on a roller coaster. Egret #3 hopped on and enjoyed a 2 second thrill before being slapped across the face by the tail. I may be expressing anthropomorphication, if for nothing more than to spell out such a long word, but truly because the bird looked embarrassed by being tossed from the ride.

Why in fact were they riding the bovine? They didn't seem to be feeding. They can certainly fly from here to there. I can only assume they're having fun. Or simply irritating the cows. Which might still be for fun.

While cows are not native to Florida, neither are Cattle Egrets. They have rafted across the Atlantic in the last century from Africa where their ancestors no doubt still cow surf.


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