Cattle Egret (?) Sussex (1 Viewer)

[Will K]

I saw several of these tall white birds bullying seagulls near the river in Arundel, Sussex.

They look like female or juvenile Cattle Egrets to me, but the distribution map on Wikipedia does not include the UK. Any thoughts?

(Sorry for the wobble. This was filmed through handheld binos.)

View attachment IMG-0811.mov

 

[opisska]

No doubt a Cattle Egret. I am not sure about the UK but in Europe in general this species is spreading northwards very fast.

 

[Will K]

Fascinating birds to watch. They were rather aggressive to their fellow birds.

They had a distinctive way of feeding. Every now and then one would stab into the ground in front of it, as if harpooning an insect with a spear.

 

[James Jobling]

Yes, Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis. Note heavy jowel, and flush to underparts indicating an approach to breeding. Cattle Egrets are now regular in southern UK (e.g. seen every year in small numbers at RSPB Dungeness), and I believe they do breed in the southwest.

 

[Will K]

No doubt a Cattle Egret. I am not sure about the UK but in Europe in general this species is spreading northwards very fast.

Thanks!

Perhaps that is due to rising global temperatures?

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Cattle Egret range has been expanding massively out of Africa since the late of the 1800s; into Europe, The Americas (mid-20th C) and Australia, The western species was typically an African bird, with a few enclaves in the very south of Spain and elsewhere nearby, and it didn't even breed in the Ebro Delta in Spain until the 1970s. Since the 60s they have been expanding into other parts of Spain, Portugal and France.

I don't know the actual reasons, climate change is the convenient hook that everyone hangs their coat on these days, but it's likely to be something else. Think of collared doves, massive range expansion from the east in the mid 20thCentury and not found in Britain until the 1950s, now they are everywhere.

Ross Ahmed has a paper in this link: http://www.e3ecology.co.uk/data/uploads/ross/ahmed_cattle-egret-identification_db_2011.pdf

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Other similar species have shown a range expansion since the mid 20th C. I have a copy of Birds of Britain and Europe (with North Africa and the Middle East), published and bought in the 1970s that shows cattle egrets' European distribution as only the very south west tip of Spain, but two other species of note are Great White Egret and Glossy Ibis. The great egret used to be rare in the UK. They now barely turn a head, yet this is only since they first moved westward into Spain, having been an Eastern bird prior to that. The same book shows them as completely absent from Western Europe, with a winter range including the northern tip of the Adriatic as their limit.

A record local to me: Glossy Ibis had one modern record in Northumberland, in the 1970s with a single observer. It was a major blocker until a second bird turned up in 2009 and stayed a while. Since the early 2000s they are much less uncommon the the UK, coinciding with a Westward expansion along the Mediterranean into Spain, where they didn't breed until recent decades. The same 1970s book shows their range as exlusively eastern, uncommon in Greece in winter, but present in summer in the countries immediately west of the Black Sea, a very similar range (with seasonal variations) to the great white egret.

It was only after these species expanded westward into the Iberian Peninsula and got establised there that we've started seeing overspill into the UK.

 

[Mike Crawley]

No doubt a Cattle Egret. I am not sure about the UK but in Europe in general this species is spreading northwards very fast.

We certainly see them regularly around and about in Cheshire

 

[Earnest lad]

I saw my first UK cattle egrets last year at Burton Mere Wetlands which is in NW England. I am not certain but I think they might be regular there.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

They have bred at Burton Mere, and they are often present, but they are probably more reliably seen around Southport!

 

[Richard D]

Spoonbill is another one that is semi-established down here.

 

[dragnil]

Lincs is another place for them.

 

[delia todd]

I saw my first one at Pagham, W Sussex in the late 1990s/early 2000s; a few years after seeing my first Little Egrets in the area.

Since then both have been seen in Scotland, with Little Egrets being more regular, but I don't think they've bred up here yet (or if they have, it's been kept a bit quiet).

 

[mummymonkey]

I saw my first one at Pagham, W Sussex in the late 1990s/early 2000s; a few years after seeing my first Little Egrets in the area.

Since then both have been seen in Scotland, with Little Egrets being more regular, but I don't think they've bred up here yet (or if they have, it's been kept a bit quiet).

Little egret bred in Dumfries & Galloway in 2020.

 

[Original PaulE]

There was a roost of up to 50 Cattle Egrets at Pagham North wall last year, not sure of the situation now, but have read about even bigger roosts my blog post at the link below has some pictures of the roost last August

Egrets I've had a few! (Kin loads actually)

The Squacco Heron at Pagham North Wall had been calling me for a couple of weeks, unable to get down due to work and hitting the big Smoke ...

birdsandcake122.blogspot.com

 

[Mike Crawley]

and right on cue one has turned up at RSPB Burton Mere in Cheshire