Cattle Egret in breeding plumage
Bubulcus ibis
Cattle Egret · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
A Cattle Egret on a paved path in the Everglades in February, in breeding plumage, and on dry ground rather than in the marsh, which is the point. Cattle Egrets forage on land, historically alongside grazing animals that stir up insects as they move, and they are now the most widespread heron on earth.
The buff wash across the crown, back and chest is breeding plumage; for the rest of the year they are plain white. The species is an African and Asian native that reached South America unassisted in the late 1800s and spread through the Americas so quickly that its arrival in Florida by the 1950s was still within living memory.
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