Cattle Egret

Description:

This Cattle Egret lives at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, Maryland. This bird first appeared in the United States in the early 1940s and is now one of this country’s most abundant herons. They are year-round residents of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay region. They prefer to feed in grass rather than water eating grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, frogs, flies, moths and other insects. They follow cattle, tractors and mowing machines eating insects that they stir up. They also pick insects off the backs of livestock and are also attracted to fires, where they snatch insects trying to escape smoke and flames.

Habitat:

Maryland Zoo, Baltimore, Maryland