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Cattle egret. Garcilla bueyera
Bubulcus ibis
39.4556, -0.348859
Field Notes
Description:
The Cattle Egret is a small heron, barely half a meter in length, smaller than the Little Egret, although larger than the Squacco Heron. In nuptial plumage it has orange colored feathers on the head, chest and back, on the general, white mantle. In winter the coloration of these feathers becomes paler and the head appears white. The legs are dark in winter and turn reddish in the nuptial season, the beak being short and yellow, although its base is red during breeding.
Seen from afar, it appears completely white, the flight being similar to that of the egret. The young do not have the orange plume of feathers, the legs are greenish and the bill is yellow.
Habitat:
It is perhaps the least aquatic of all the herons, being common to see it roaming the fields, both dry and irrigated, or among livestock, in search of their food. It also frequently uses open-air garbage cans for this.
Notes:
It feeds mainly on insects, such as grasshoppers, and also on water beetles, mollusks, dragonflies and their larvae, and frogs.
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