"Where did you get the photos of Billy Idol?"

...is what Rick said when he came into my office and saw this puffed-up Cattle Egret on my screen...

"Pinckney," I responded casually. "He was great. Very polite...put on a fab show."

I've heard of dogs looking like their owners, but never birds looking like celebs...

...he was dancing with himself here.

The famous mohawk...

...off to the next gig.

...photographed at Ibis Pond on Pinckney Island, near Hilton Head, South Carolina 6/8/11. For other Cattle Egret posts, click here.

The three baby Cattle Egrets...and mama from behind

These are the same Cattle Egrets from the previous post. Mama left the nest for a few minutes to chase away a Night-crowned Heron, and when she returned, she faced the other direction, showing off her beautiful nuptial plumage.

A Cattle Egret nestling looks on as his mama jumps up to convince a Night-crowned Heron to move on to his own nest!

"Avian Architecture" and a Cattle Egret building a nest...

Let's jump all the way back to the first week of June when I was in Hilton Head, SC. Just before I had left for the trip, I had started reading "Avian Architecture; How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build" by Peter Goodfellow. Since I was headed to a heronry, I knew I'd be able to see lots of examples of nest building, and I did. I found platform nests, cup-shaped nests, hanging, woven and stitched nests, domed nests, holes and tunnels, and aquatic nests. If I had not been reading "Avian Architecture" at the time, I don't know if I would have been as intent on finding all the different types of nests. In years pasts at the heronry, I always admired and was amazed by the nests, and I had a cursory understanding of their structure, but it took reading "Avian Architecture" to really bring the engineering to life and deepen my appreciation of the building process. It's a great book to add to your birding library. I love it. Blue prints, photographs and lovely watercolors help you assimilate a lot of information quickly. It won't take long to help you understand another facet of bird life.

A Cattle Egret adds another stick to the nest. Cattle Egrets are colonial nesters and build platform nests near water, so it was no surprise to find them nesting in the heronry at Ibis Pond.

Male and female Cattle Egrets look similar and both parents participate in nest building, but often the male brings the sticks and the female places them; therefore, I'm deducing this is a female Cattle Egret.

...the nestlings seem to be saying something like, "Adding to the nest is all fine and good, but we're hungry. Feed us!"

...the perfect stick...in the perfect place.

Here are a few videos of the mama Cattle Egret arranging her nest. In the first video she's adding a new stick and in the second, she's trying to reposition an older twig that doesn't seem to want to budge. Also...in the first video you'll hear a conversation between me and Paul Krusling (the Cincinnati birder and expert herpetologist I had to travel 12 hours to meet! Click here for a previous post on Paul.)

Cattle Egret Building Nest from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.

Cattle Egret continues tidying her nest... from Kelly Riccetti on Vimeo.

Cattle Egrets at Pinckney Island

Birding Hilton Head Island and Pinckney Island NWR, SC 

...continued from Monday's post on the baby Tricolored Herons.

I did a double-take when this beautiful white bird stepped into view. I was only about 40 feet from the nesting Snowy Egrets, so for a split second "just another Snowy" formed in my mind, but my brain knew something was up and its power of recognition spit out that conclusion quickly and replaced it with that "It can't be...but I know it is...at least I hope it is...It has to be...but it's probably not" feeling. (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about!) Hope seared through me, and I held my breath, watching. He was perched deep in the shadows of a scraggly willow, hidden by a thicker curtain of leaves than those hiding the baby Tricolored Herons. But then he moved, and he stepped into an open patch of sunlight, and with one long stretch of his leg moved up a branch, turned around, and revealed those beautiful pale orange plumes on his back seen only during the breeding season. I couldn't believe it. Another new species...a Cattle Egret, and nary a pasture or cow in sight! 

You can always see the pale orange feathers 

on his head, but the the plumes on the back 

only remain during breeding season.

"I have a haughty glare in my eyes, but truly I'm gregarious 

and friendly. Please don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

"Don't underestimate my beauteousness, 

and make sure you get the profile."

"I'm in love...I'm all shook up!"

After I photographed this Cattle Egret, I noticed a small flock of about five birds to the right of him (or her), but they were deep in the branches. Later on, I came back to this spot and two were in open view. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Cattle Egret chicks or nests. Either they weren't born yet, or they were nesting closer to the interior of the heronry. 

Beak Bit

Jim McCormac writes in his book, "Birds of Ohio," that Cattle Egrets can be found anywhere in Ohio during migration. During the breeding season they have been found nesting in a small heronry near Lake Erie in Ohio. (With all this Ohio action, why did I have to travel to South Carolina to find one?) Cattle Egrets are native to Africa but have spread to every continent on earth (except Antarctica). They often hang out in pastures where they eat the insects stirred up by the cattles' hooves.