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Cattle Egret | Ardea ibis
Koereiger | Garcilla bueyera
The heron of fields and livestock, which in Egypt and the Maghreb follows ploughs, cows and mowers everywhere. It has increased greatly in recent decades and is spreading into the Arabian Peninsula, where it is becoming ever more numerous on irrigated farmland and in city parks.
Voice
At roosts and colonies a harsh, croaking rick-rack or kok; otherwise fairly silent.
Recording: Paul Coiffard — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
A small, stocky white heron with a short, thick neck, a rounded head with a feathered "jowl" under the bill and a short, thick yellow bill. The legs are rather short, yellowish-green to dark. In breeding plumage the crown, breast and mantle acquire orange-buff plumes, and the bill and legs briefly turn red to orange-red. Juveniles are all white with a dark bill. In flight compact, with quicker wingbeats than other white herons, often in tight groups low over the land or in V-formation to the roost.
Confusion species
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) is slimmer and longer-necked, with a thin black bill, black legs and yellow feet. Medium Egret (Ardea intermedia) and Great Egret (Ardea alba) are larger and longer-necked. Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides) is also white in flight but ochre-brown when perched. In the east, watch for Eastern Cattle Egret (Ardea coromanda), which bred in the Emirates in 2024: in breeding plumage it has an orange-buff head and neck, a longer bill and longer legs.
Habitat
Fields, irrigated land, pasture with livestock, lawns, golf courses, rubbish tips and the edges of marshes and canals. It feeds on land, on insects, lizards and frogs flushed by cattle, tractors or mowers. Breeds in colonies in trees or reeds, often with other herons and close to villages; communal roosts in trees by water or in towns.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Abundant breeder in northern Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia, where it keeps spreading inland, and locally on the Libyan coast. In Egypt one of the commonest birds of the Nile Delta and Nile Valley to Aswan, and also in the oases of the Western Desert. A common breeder in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. In Arabia mainly a winter visitor to irrigated farmland, such as at Najran, Al Kharj and Qassim in Saudi Arabia, and in the Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait; breeding colonies are known from the Emirates (Al Marmoom near Dubai) and eastern Saudi Arabia, among others. Common in the Tihama of Yemen. Beyond the region in southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and, after colonisation, the Americas; the Asian birds are treated as a separate species.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the Nile Delta you need not search: every field with a buffalo or a tractor attracts dozens. The evening flight to the roosts, in long lines low over the fields, is easy to watch in Egypt and Morocco. In the Gulf states the green fields and parks around Dubai and Abu Dhabi are good places in winter.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened and one of the world's most successful herons. In the region it has increased strongly thanks to irrigation, agricultural expansion and protection of colonies; in Arabia it is settling at ever more sites. Locally, colonies in villages are seen as a nuisance and are disturbed.
Scientific name
Ardea ibis | Linnaeus, 1758 (GBIF: Bubulcus ibis)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Ardea in that same work. Ardea is the Latin word for 'heron'. ibis is a Latin and Greek word that originally referred to the sacred ibis and was applied to this egret in error. The specimen the first description was based on came from Egypt.