Cattle Egret
Bubulcus ibis
The white egret that follows the cattle and the plough.
Seen atHaldwani
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Gai-Bagula
/ gaai ba·gu·laa /गाय बगुला
Cattle Egret — The white egret that follows the cattle and the plough.
Field notes
- Order
- Pelecaniformes
- Family
- Ardeidae · Herons & egrets
- Genus
- Bubulcus
- Length
- 46–56 cm
- Weight
- 270–512 g
- At Kunja
- Resident — here all year round
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A small, stocky white egret with a yellow bill; in the breeding season it flushes buff-orange on the head, breast and back. Usually near livestock.
What it eats
Insects, frogs and small creatures, mostly the ones flushed up by grazing cattle and the plough, which it follows closely.
Where & when to spot it
In the fields and pasture among the cattle, and roosting in trees near water; commonest down in the warm foothills.
Nesting & mating
Colonial — builds a stick platform in a waterside tree, often with other egrets; three to five eggs.
In the lens
Cattle Egret, photographed at Haldwani
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
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