Reproduction
Cattle egrets usually roost and nest in trees or mangroves, typically near rivers. Hundreds may nest in the same tree. During the courtship season, which lasts about 20 days, their bill and legs turn a vivid red. Non-breeding egrets retain their yellow bill and greenish-yellow legs. Males establish a territory, which they aggressively defend. The female lays four to six white eggs with a green or blue tinge in a shallow, platform-like nest. The nest is made of reeds, branches or other material and rests in trees or bushes. Both parents incubate the eggs for 21-24 days. Down-covered young have blackish legs and a black bill, which begins to turn yellow as summer draws to a close. Young leave the nest about three weeks after hatching and fledge in four to five weeks.

Life Cycle
When food is abundant, hundreds, and even thousands of cattle egrets may group together. The cattle egrets’ daily routine is to leave their roost at dawn to seek food, flying in long, crooked lines, which allows easy identification of the species. As night approaches, they return to their roost.

Opportunistic Hunters
Cattle egrets are opportunistic hunters. They forage for food by following grazing herbivores such as rhinoceros, or domestic livestock (hence its name) and farm machinery, all of which stir up the soil and expose insects, earthworms and other small animals to eat. Egrets make best of this opportunity, snatching up the startled and appetizing creatures. Cattle egrets also perch on the backs of large herbivores, plucking and eating tasty parasites such as ticks or fleas.

World Wanderers
The cattle egret is a highly mobile wanderer. With the knowledge that cows, native wildlife and tractors flush out their food, egrets have spread far beyond their original range in Africa. They flew north and inhabited deforested areas of Europe and Asia. They expanded their territory by flying west across the Atlantic to the tropics of South America, where the first sightings of cattle egrets took place at the end of the 1800s. In 1953, humans observed the first breeding pair in Florida, and in California during the 1960s. By the 1980s, cattle egrets were found over half of the United States, and in several Canadian provinces. This wandering bird continues to expand its territory throughout North America.

Currently, Woodland Park Zoo does not have cattle egrets on exhibit. However, other savanna birds can be easily seen at the African Savanna aviary. There are also other birds of Africa near the hippopotamuses.

Cattle egrets are not an endangered species. In fact, they have significantly increased their numbers throughout the 1900s. Rapid deforestation around the world enabled cattle egrets to emigrate from their original habitat to inhabit open agricultural areas worldwide. It has yet to be determined if there are any negative effects of cattle egrets on resident populations of native birds.

Nonetheless, many threatened or endangered species of herons and egrets have not experienced such a significant growth in numbers. As of 2004, there are six species of heron listed as endangered, and two species listed as vulnerable.* At the beginning of the 1900s, poachers slaughtered millions of egrets at breeding colonies to obtain bird plumage for hats and other clothing. Although humans have essentially discontinued this practice, certain populations of egrets have thus far to recover from this onslaught. The current destruction of natural habitat has a devastating effect on herons and other bird populations at their breeding grounds, in wintering areas and along migration routes. As their required habitat disappears, several species of herons that rely on wetlands for feeding and nesting have been reduced to dangerously low population numbers.

Woodland Park Zoo is Helping - With Your Support!
For many animals, flexible and sustainable conservation programs are essential. Partnerships with other zoos can support healthy captive populations, while in-situ field work provides successful on-ground solutions for helping the Cattle egret's habitat.

Each in-situ project supported by the zoo aims to provide a broad, holistic approach to conservation, encompassing research, education, habitat and species preservation. This includes comprehensive, cooperative strategies to link the needs of animals with the people who share their ecosystems.

How You Can Help!
The effort to save threatened and endangered birds requires cooperation and support at the international, national, regional and individual levels. You can help in this cause. Join and become active in Woodland Park Zoo and other conservation organizations of your choice. Recycle forest products and eliminate or reduce pesticide use. Let your elected representatives know your views about conservation of birds and their wild habitats. Please do not buy products made from wild animal parts.

Contact Woodland Park Zoo at webkeeper@zoo.org to find out how you can support conservation efforts at the zoo. Learn other ways you can help conserve wildlife and the habitats they require for survival, by visiting our How You Can Help page.

Sources and Suggested Reading
del Hoyo, Josep et al. 1992. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. 696 p.

Hancock, James and James Kushlan. 1984. Herons Handbook. Harper & Row, New York, NY. 288 p.

National Geographic Society, Second Edition. 1995. Field Guide to the Birds of North America . National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. 44 p.

Reader's Digest. 1990. Book of North American Birds . The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., Pleasantville, New York, NY. 576 p.

Other Resources
Austin, Oliver L., Jr. and Arthur Singer. 1961. Birds of the World . Golden Press, New York, NY. 316 p.

Imperial Valley College (cattle egret fact sheet): www.imperial.cc.ca.us/birds/c-egret.htm

Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden: Birds in Suriname (cattle egret fact sheet): www.tem.nhl.nl/~ribot/english/egib_ng.htm

Woodland Park Zoo Animal Management Staff: Personal Correspondence

Woodland Park Zoo - Teachers Packet Fact Sheet (Cattle Egret)


*There are several international and federal agencies that determine the endangered status of species. WPZ designates a species as endangered if it is listed as endangered on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List, the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Endangered Species List, or on Appendix I of CITES (Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna).