Originally native to Africa and Asia, it has expanded its range around the world. Originally from Africa, it found its way to North America in 1953 and quickly spread across the continent. Its genus name Bubulcus is Latin for herdsman, referring, like the English name, to this species' association with cattle. In fact, although I don’t have a photograph to share with you, the Cattle Egret is commonly found actually riding the back of the island’s livestock where they find flies and tick to eat. The Cattle Egret first came to my attention in the grasslands of Hawaii, the Big Island where they are commonly found mingling around the island’s livestock. Government plans 'open season' on Hawaii's cattle egrets and barn owls. The cattle egret was first described in 1758 by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae as Ardea ibis, but was moved to its current genus by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1855. The Cattle Egret has gone through one of the most rapid natural expansion of any bird. and larger-billed than another Cattle Egret present at the same time (HRBP 1270-1271) and thought to have been an Intermediate Egret (Richardson 1999). This species was deliberately released in Hawaii staring in 1959 and they are now well established on all the main islands. This Cattle egret was awkwardly walking on top of a hedge downtown Waikiki. coromandus from remote Midway and December 19, 2013 at 10:47 PM HST - Updated July 11 at 6:05 AM . Bird length is about 50 cm (20 inches). It was later determined (AOU 2004) that this bird was of the Asian subspecies of Cattle Egret B.i. CATTLE EGRET (Bubulcus ibis) – (See images below) DESCRIPTION: The Cattle Egret is white with a yellow bill and dark grey legs.Eyes are yellow. In breeding plumage there is a reddish tinge on the breast plumes. This stocky white heron has yellow plumes on its head and neck during breeding season. These are the smaller nominate race, sometimes split as "Western Cattle Egret" but there are a couple of reports of the larger Asian subspecies B.i. It forages at the feet of grazing cattle, head bobbing with each step, or rides on their backs to pick at ticks. coromandus, in which case it can be considered a natural vagrant to the Hawaiian Islands. La garcilla bueyera, garza bueyera, [2] garza ganadera, espulgabuey, [3] garza ganadera africana, [4] o garza boyera (Bubulcus ibis) es una especie de la familia Ardeidae. Jan. 2014. Note the sideways 'S' movements of the neck. It reached the Americas in the late 19th century when it was first found in Guiana and Suriname in 1877, and Australia in the The short, thick-necked Cattle Egret spends most of its time in fields rather than streams. [5] [6] Es un ave esbelta y blanca adornada con plumas doradas o anaranjadas en cabeza y cuello en temporada de cría.Mide de 46-56 cm de largo, pesa entre 270-512 gr y su envergadura alar va de 88-96 cm. Sexes are similar.