Cattle Egret, Bubuleus ibis

Cattle Egret, Bubuleus ibis. Photographs taken in Oahu, Hawaii, March 2019. Photographs and identification courtesy of Julie McGhee, Oak Hills, California.

Cattle Egret, Bubuleus ibis. Photograph taken within the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, January 2023. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Cattle Egret, Bubuleus ibis. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, January 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Cattle Egret, Bubuleus ibis, is a member of the Ardeidae Family of Herons, Egrets and Bitterns. They are mid-sized in stature. In Mexico they are winter visitors and found throughout the country with the exception of Baja California and Baja California Sur at elevations below 4,080 m (13,400 feet). From a conservation perspective the Cattle Egret is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are found in a wide variety of habitats including coastal barrier, marsh, and dredge-material islands; periphery and islands in reservoirs, lakes, quarries, and wetlands; swamps; riparian and upland woodlands and groves. Their diets are extremely varied and based on availability and include insects (crickets, grasshoppers, flies and ticks) on grazing of host animals and limited amounts of frogs, moths and spiders.